Chiesa di Santa Maria del Casale
The Church of St. Mary of the Farmhouse" is an interesting Romanesque-Gothic building. It was built in the thirteenth century on a previous Marian chapel, linked to the tradition that St. Francis of Assisi would have stopped here to pray, returning from the Holy Land. Since 1310, the Church and the annexes were used as chancery in the trial of the Templars of the Kingdom of Sicily. Philip of Anjou, Prince of Taranto, has built here a chapel dedicated to St. Catherine, in honor of his wife. In '500, the Order of the Reformed concluded the construction of the convent; the Franciscans have returned only in 1824. The Church, "National Monument" since 1875, has been restored recently. The facade is decorated with friezes of bichrome stone punctuated by pilasters. On the portal an original porch roof, open front with a bow, repeats the architectural scheme of the facade; above there is a large arched window. The interior has a Latin cross, has a single nave with a trussed roof and vault, and is largely frescoed in Byzantine taste, with some contribution of linear Gothic: "Judgement", grandiose fresco distributed into four compartments, by Rinaldo from Taranto; "Annunciation"; "Madonna among the Knights" and "Madonna with Child". Other paintings and frescoes decorate transepts, chancel and sacristy.
