Chiesa di San Domenico

The Church of San Domenico in Nardò was known in the medieval period as Santa Maria de Raccomandatis and became associated with the Dominican convent beside it. Its carparo facade, remade in the Baroque period, is among the city’s most elaborate church fronts.

Why it matters

The church’s history reflects the Dominican presence in Nardò. The friars were established at the church and adjacent convent in the medieval period. Giovanni Maria Tarantino directed a rebuilding campaign in 1580–94. After the earthquake of 1743, the interior was rebuilt under fra’ Alberto Manieri, a Dominican prior and architect. The facade’s carved carparo sandstone ornament is recognized by the municipality among the city’s notable Baroque compositions.

What to notice

The stone facade combines volutes, putti, fantastic figures and floral ornament. The church’s interior was reshaped after the 1743 earthquake. A marble altar of the Madonna del Rosario holds a canvas attributed to the Nardò painter Donato Antonio D’Orlando. A 1614 notarial agreement records the De Castello and Sambiasi families’ involvement in chapel works, a trace of the relationship between the church and the city’s local families.

Context and history

The name Santa Maria de Raccomandatis belongs to the church’s earlier history, before its Dominican association. Tarantino’s late-sixteenth-century campaign and Manieri’s post-earthquake rebuilding shaped the building that followed. The convent was suppressed in the nineteenth century and passed into civic use; the municipal account identifies it today as the home of the Liceo Artistico. The church remains a landmark of Nardò’s historic centre.