Highlights:

Discover one of the most interesting places in Puglia, just a few kilometers from the sea
Explore the huge fortress and visit Paolo Finoglio’s paintings
Discover the Romanesque cathedral and the monastery of San Benedetto

Tour details:

The guided tour starts from the castle, of Norman fortress origin, it was remodeled up to the current sumptuous and stately appearance.
Inside there are the reception rooms where the nobles received guests and the magnificent wedding room of Count Giangirolamo II Acquaviva d’Aragona, called the Guecio di Puglia.
Inside you can admire the seventeenth-century paintings of the cycle “La Gerusalemme Liberata” by Paolo Finoglio.
After the castle the visit continues with the Convent of San Benedetto di Conversano dedicated to the saint of Norcia.

Overlooked by the elegant baroque bell tower, the medieval cloister offers an elegant view of the seven Romanesque triple-gates and the magnificent carved capitals and is a testimony to the immense power of clerical and monastic orders of the mitrate abbesses, who enjoyed episcopal privileges.

The second cloister of the Convent of San Benedetto, of seventeenth-century work, also houses the important archaeological section of the civic museum, with artefacts ranging from prehistory to the Roman age, paleolithic flints, lithic tools coming from the caves of Conversano and Monopoli.

Afterwards we will visit the Cathedral of Conversano, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta and built in the Apulian Romanesque style, it has a facade with three portals crowned by a fifteenth-century rose window. The interior preserves a basilica plant with three naves that culminate with three aligned semicircular apses. To separate the naves, we can admire columns with Byzantine-inspired capitals with vegetal, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs.

Despite the fire of 1911 that destroyed most of the works, the Cathedral still preserves a large fifteenth-century fresco of the Pisan school, a wooden Crucifix and the icon of the Madonna della Fonte, the patron saint of Conversano.