Luogo - Museum
Museo Archeologico Antiquarium Comunale
Where
Via Carlo Rossi, 45/A, Celenza Valfortore (Foggia)
The Antiquarium occupies the former municipal rooms inside the convent ‘Santa Maria delle Grazie’, a hermit convent of St. Jerome from the seventeenth century. It is a historical foundation: the portal of entry in local stone is antique and was carved in the sixteenth century. The upright pillars, surmounted by capitals are decorated with rosettes in relief in the shape of a star, one of the capitals shows a rampant lion, a symbol of the noble family of Gambacorta. The pediment is tastefully decorated with reliefs of various kinds. It was built by Pietro Gambacorta in 1672 on the ruins of the ancient church of Santo Stefano. The work was commissioned in honour of his ancestor, the Blessed Pietro Gambacorta, who in 1380 founded the Congregation of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Pisa. For this reason the religious, housed in the monastery were called either Pisani or Bottizzelli Fathers. The order of the Fathers was suppressed in 1806 by Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples. In 1810 Gioacchino Murat gave the monastery to the Local Council of Celenza and it became the centre of the Judicature and the Royal Gendarmerie. After the unification of Italy, it became the base for the police station and a prison. It currently houses the City hall and the local police station.
