Museo Diocesano Alessandro Maria Kalefati

The Diocesan Museum "A. M. Kalefati " of Oria, is located on the ground floor of the Bishop’s Palace. The building stands on the ancient Messapica Acropolis, where according to some witnesses from the nineteenth century, it is reported that here is the presence of a mosaic portraying a lion holding a snake in its jaws (elements that we find in the next coat of arms of the town where the snake comes out from a castle, two lions resting on the castle and a stork trying to seize the castle). Today the Bishop’s Palace is located next to the Basilica which is connected by an internal passageway. The current palace was built by the Archbishop of Oria, Gian Carlo Bovio between 1564 and 1570. Inside there are architectural elements of the ancient Messapica Acropolis and the ancient Cathedral occupying the eighteenth-century Basilica. Of particular historical and artistic interest are some marble columns, a column from the Classical Age and sculpted again in the Middle Ages with a figure of an archer on horseback, two carved lions and some ornaments and architectural details of the ancient church. Furthermore on the inside are fine frescoed ceiling attributed to Pellegrino Ribaldi from the school of Raphael.