Campanile della Cattedrale di Altamura

Altamura's cathedral bell tower rises beside the facade of Santa Maria Assunta, the medieval complex founded at Frederick II's initiative during the city's thirteenth-century refoundation. The tower's upper levels offer a view over the claustri and the Murgia plateau.

Why it matters

The campanile belongs to the complex of Santa Maria Assunta, founded at Frederick II's initiative when the city was repopulated in the thirteenth century. Its fabric, medieval in origin and altered across later centuries, shares the cathedral's layered history; the twin-towered silhouette frames Piazza Duomo. The upper galleries of the cathedral preserve medieval capitals and the church's silver, vestments and stone sculpture.

What to notice

The cathedral's upper galleries, or matronei, are parallel loggias above the side aisles, with mid-thirteenth-century capitals and displays of silver, vestments and stone sculpture from its treasury. The tower's masonry records the different building campaigns that raised it, while its height gives a view over Altamura's rooftops, claustri and the Murgia plateau.

Context and history

The tower grew with the church it serves. The cathedral was begun after the imperial refoundation of the city in 1232 and rebuilt in Gothic times after a medieval collapse, and the tower block beside it was repaired, raised and re-roofed across the following centuries rather than built in a single campaign — its outline today is the sum of those interventions, including the 18th-century work that gave the cathedral's towers their present bell chambers. For most of its history it rang for a palatine church that answered to the sovereign rather than the local bishop, a status that shaped Altamura's unusual religious institutions. The tower's elevated position has looked over Altamura for centuries, while its upper architecture preserves features of the cathedral's earlier history.