ABBAZIA DELLA TRINITÀ

This Norman abbey, dating from 1051, was built on the ruins of a pagan temple dedicated to Hymenaeus, the god who presided over wedding feasts. It is due to Count Drogon, brother-in-law of the famous Robert Guiscard, who decided to make it the burial place of his glorious descendants. He himself was buried there, after his death in Corfu in 1085. A century after the foundation of the abbey, the Benedictines decided to add a new church to it, in order to enlarge the space for worship. The abbey therefore consisted of two churches: the Chiesa Vecchia, which can be recognised by its beautiful portal flanked by two stone lions, and the Chiesa Nuova, situated just behind the chevet of the first. The Benedictines' final project was to integrate the Chiesa Vecchia into the nave of the Chiesa Nuova, so that they would form a vast basilica. However, work on the new church was interrupted after a few decades, when the monks abandoned the convent. The Incompiuta (the Unfinished) was born, of which only the outer walls and five columns, four of which have Corinthian capitals, remain today. Some scholars have believed they saw, through this parallel between finished and unfinished, the passage from the physical to the metaphysical, from the finished to the infinite. The buildings were built with blocks of stone recovered from the Roman amphitheatre and other ancient monuments. Inside the Chiesa Vecchia there are frescoes from various periods, including a 14th century pietà.