[edit]
Religious architecture[edit]
Via Paliodoro
Monastery of Santa Chiara.
The monastery is the most imposing building in the historic center and was founded in 1573 by Antonio Acquaviva of Aragon with money from his sister Donna Dorotea. Built as an orphanage, a century later (1600) it becomes the Monastery of the Poor Clares. Over the years it has undergone various changes and transformations: after the Unification of Italy it was suppressed and used, over time, as a prison, school, cine-theater and home. The façade on Via Scesciola has a rusticated ground floor, a long crowning viewpoint with iron gratings. Inside the cloister you can see two sides with arches on pillars and in the center an elevated cistern.
Saint Croce of Matrice church
Built on another of the century. XII – XIII, It has a wall structure with smooth and regular ashlars. Leaning against the church we find the bell tower in regular stone ashlars, two floors divided by ornate frames. The first floor has mullioned windows with arches turned on the capitals, included in an upper arch laid on shelves. On the second floor there is a loggia with a perforated checkerboard parapet. It consists internally of three large naves with chapels, in which, among the many works of great interest, there are a baptismal font of 1200 and the statue of San Rocco, protector of the city.
Complex of the Monacelle.
The result of an adaptation of a former palace belonging to an important local family: the De Bellis family. The last owner, Don Domenico Console, bought the palace and made it an orphanage where civil and religious education was given to young girls. Inside the orphanage was established a women's music conservatory, one of the most important in the province was established and it was appreciated by the Kingdom of Naples. After the unification of Italy it was used as a barracks of a police force, hotel and elementary school, compromising the original fabric of the building. Today It is used as the seat of some municipal offices and a rich library with study rooms, computer rooms, a well-equipped auditorium and an art gallery belonging to the Don Sante Montanaro Foundation, in addition to the presence of the eco-museum of SAC Pecutezia.
Palazzo Monacelle, seat of the municipal library and former Palazzo De Bellis. Entrance from Via Roma.
Palazzo Monacelle. Entrance from the Borgo Antico.Auditorium dell'Addolorata.
Former church of 1800 in baroque style, built by Don Domenico Console and annexed to the Conservatory of Monacelle. Today it is a very popular auditorium for conferences, presentations and concerts. It has a beautiful bell tower with onion cusp.
Auditorium Chiesa dell'Addolorata
Church of Purgatory.
Baroque style building with an imposing bell tower, built between 1722 and 1758 in the central Piazza Aldo Moro. It is high above the street level and has a large churchyard, it has a single nave with numerous chapels inside. It houses the Confraternity of Purgatory and the statue of Our Lady of Carmine, patron saint of city.
Abbazia di San Lorenzo
Throughout Puglia, during the X and XI centuries there were some abbeys of monks, one of which was that of San Lorenzo in Casamassima. The documents that are kept in the archive of the Basilica of San Nicola di Bari show that the small convent built before 984 A.D. was a Benedictine center. Unfortunately, today only the church remains, located about 2500 meters from Casamassima, on the road to Turi, in a characteristic blade.
It represents a fine example of sacred rural architecture with frescoes. The construction is in large stone ashlars and the roof consists of a double pitched roof with terracotta tiles. The main facade has a small door with shaped jambs on which there is a protiro with a niche and a bell-shaped sail.
At the rear there is a small semicircular apse that creates a rhythmic alternation of volumes, with another more protruding on the left. The inner vault is a barrel.
Civil architecture[edit]
Watch stand[edit]
Porta Orologio, in Piazza Aldo Moro, is the main access to the village. Once it consisted of the only lower part called Porta dei Molini, because it led to the mills of the Duke.
In 1841 it was enlarged on a project by the architect Angelo Michele Pesce with the construction of the tower with the clock, surmounted by a small temple with Doric columns. Under the arch an eighteenth-century fresco of the Madonna del Soccorso.
In the same square there are also the church of Purgatory, one of the most important churches in the country along with the mother church (which is located in the historic center) and a monument to the Victory. In the historic center, in addition to the aforementioned Mother Church, there is the "castle" (actually a noble palace), the former orphanage Addolorata (also called Monacelle), the former convent of Santa Chiara. Another noteworthy place of Casamassima is the Polish Cemetery at Casamassima, visibile from S.S.100 Bari-Taranto.
Palazzo Amenduni[edit]
The palace is located near Via Castello and is one of the largest, imposing and important palaces of the ancient village of Casamassima. It is a seventeenth-century building, similar to a fort, with a small terrace overlooking Via Castello and a longer one on the back elevation with a large garden. The main portal is dominated by an eighteenth-century balcony (more specifically a mugnano); on the key of the arch there is the coat of arms of the family of nobles Amenduni.
Ducal Palace Vaaz[edit]
It is one of the most important attractions of the village, also witness of the "traces of blue" on the facades, which still retains the original structure. Built in 1100, it was an old manor house, residence of the feudal lords Vaaz, Jewish family of Portuguese origin. During the years, until 1800, resided the Acquaviva d'Aragona, the De Ponte and the Caracciolo. The access is characterized by a precious and refined sixteenth-century portal, with the traditional diamond-pointed ashlar of the sixteenth century inspired by Spanish.
Monacelle palace[edit]
Located in the current Via Roma, former Palazzo De Bellis. It was adapted to Convento Monacelle when the last owner donated it to the Orphanage of Our Lady of Sorrows. The name "Monacelle" comes from the clothes of the poor young women who were welcomed here and hosted to remove them from the streets.
Arch of Shadows[edit]
According to an ancient legend the arch was home to ghosts, who passed continuously inside. This belief derives from the fact that, when there was still no public illumination and you transited with lights and candles, observing the bow from a distance, the shadows of the silhouettes of those who passed through it gave the impression of the presence of ghosts. The shadow arch is today one of the only monuments still covered in blue.
Arch of shadows
Casamassima, traces of blue
Arch of Our Lady of Constantinople[edit]
Under the arch in Via Santa Chiara appears the seventeenth-century fresco of the Madonna of Constantinople, whose cloak was inspired by Duke Vaaz to paint the village blue, as a vow to have the people protected from the plague. From here you are close to the ancient district Scesciola.
Rione Scesciola[edit]
Very particular district, with the fascinating Arabic name "Shawash'ala" (labyrinth) and where the blue begins to leak from the walls with its suggestive stratifications. It is a district of small rural houses characterized by a room on the ground floor (Sottano), a room on the raised floor (soprano) and reached by an external stone staircase, called vignale. On the sides of the only window there are cantilevered shelves to support a wooden board to dry figs or other.
Via Scesciola
Via Paliodoro and Chiasso Bongustai[edit]
Via Paliodoro and Chiasso Bongustai are the most loved and photographed views of the blue country. Via Paliodoro is the most blue street of the village with the numerous rural houses largely renovated and embellished with flowers and traditional objects. Numerous plates indicate recognition of the best recovery by the Pro Loco. Going down the characteristic Via Sacramento, we enter Chiasso Bongustai: one of the most evocative noises, in which there was the ancient oven of the Duke. Today it is all painted of celestial and such coloring makes the place particularly attractive.
Home of the poet Nazariantz[edit]
Hrand Nazariantz is an Armenian poet who lived in Casamassima.
Military architecture[edit]
Polish Cemetery at Casamassima "Korpusu"[edit]
See also: Polish Cemetery at Casamassima
Near State Road 100 stands the Polish military cemetery, burial place of 429 Poland soldiers fallen in World War II or deceased within the largest Polish health complex in the South that the 2nd Military Corps established in the center of Casamassima.
Natural areas[edit]
The forest of Marcedd[edit]
The forest of Marcedd (or forest of Marcello) is the largest green area of the country; it is rich in landscape elements and unique nature trails and cycling. It is located about three kilometers southeast of the town, near the farm Uaciduzzo-Paglia Arsa and the bed of Lama San Giorgio.
The area was once the bed of a river that departed from Mount Sannace of Gioia del Colle and is characterized by the presence of low and sparse scrub, with groups of essences mostly shrubby: il lentisco, the Phillyrea and the Calicotome spinosa, to which the Quercus coccifera, the Olive, the Osiris, the asparagus, the Sicilian tea, il cistus Monspeliencis and the perastro. Rarely it is possible to find specimens of Quercus trojana and Quercus pubescens.
Much richer in species are the sub steppe paths of the wood characterized mostly by the presence of graminaceae, annual and perennial, of different species. Among the grasses we remember the Stipa austroitalica, a species considered priority by the Habitat Directive of the European Union. The Marcedd Forest is part of a project to build a regional nature reserve.
