Wooden choir

A treasure hidden behind the altar

Placed behind the altar as per post-Tridentine prescription, the wooden choir represents an exceptionally preserved example of this type of late sixteenth-century artifact.

With its date 1599, written in gold on the central bench depicting the Immaculate Conception, the choir ranks chronologically among the last Renaissance products in Barletta.

Commissioned to two Neapolitan masters, with Angelo Casella in the role of squarer, i.e. he who took care of the architectural part, and Federico Ferraro as carver, the project initially included a rosette decoration, subsequently replaced with the images of the saints as directed to the artists by Fra Pacifico, at the time dean of the Franciscan convent.

The friar's interference in the ornamental choices leads back entirely to the Counter-Reformation climate.

An inscription runs along the architrave, again in golden letters, taken from a sacred hymn which recalls the reception of the stigmata of Saint Francis. This episode is represented in one of the seats next to the Immaculate Virgin.