Saint Theodore on a white horse. Gothic fresco from the 1300s or 1400s in the church or crypt of Santa Maria della Scala, a ‘lower church’ under the Romanesque cathedral at Trani, in Puglia (Apulia), Italy. The church of Santa Maria della Scala is now believed to date from the late 1000s or early 1100s and the same period as the cathedral, the Cattedrale di San Nicola Pellegrino or Basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta.
Trani, Province of Barletta, Puglia (Apulia), Italy: Gothic fresco from the 1300s or 1400s in the ‘lower church’ of Santa Maria della Scala, which lies below the Cattedrale di San Nicola Pellegrino and is entered via an archway under the cathedral’s porch. Saint Theodore was an Early Christian martyr, reported to have appeared on a white horse with a child he had rescued from pirates. The church of Santa Maria della Scala is believed to date back to the end of the 1000s or early 1100s. It is divided into three naves by 22 small columns of granite or oriental marble. Many frescoes must have once decorated this church and some remain: in the left nave, not far from the entrance, is a Byzantine-style fresco of the Madonna and Child; further in is the fresco in this image, St Theodore on a white horse; then a bearded Saint dressed in monastic robes. At the end of the right nave stands a Gothic tomb, the Pascopepe Larnbertini tomb, surmounted by a fresco of the Madonna who, lifting a veil, shows Baby Jesus in swaddling clothes to two saints on either side of her. The vault of this part of the nave is frescoed with figures of Evangelists. Trani Cathedral stands on the site of an earlier church, documented since the 800s and dedicated to the Virgin. All that remains of the earlier church is an underground chapel dedicated to the protobishop of Brindisi, San Leucio, and some pieces of mosaic flooring. A larger church, the current Romanesque-Apulian Cattedrale San Nicola Pellegrino, was begun in 1099 and dedicated to Saint Peregrinus (Nicola Pellegrino), a young Greek pilgrim who died at Trani. The cathedral crypt, cripta di San Nicola Pellegrino, intended to house the relics of San Nicola, does not correspond to the etymology of the word crypt: it is not ‘hidden’ at all, but is bright and high and has a vaulted ceiling supported by 28 marble columns with intricately carved capitals, almost all Corinthian or Byzantine.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Church of Santa Maria della Scala, Cathedral, Cattedrale di San Nicola Pellegrino, Basilica cattedra
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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