18 – CALVARIO CHAPEL AEDICULA

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Via Selva di Fasano

Near the Gravicella. Chapel of the Calvary, or Santa Maria della Pietà or Santa Maria Piccenna. Stone structure placed along a transit route. Modernized and restored.

It was transformed into Calvary around 1870; and consequently it was thought well to deprive it of the front wall, so that it could be opened to public view. Almost completely abandoned, its destruction was threatened as usual. Instead, it was restored, and enriched with modern ceramics, by the will of the priest Don Nicola Pellegrino: «Res miranda populo»” (Marco Lanera, “The acts of the Holy Visit of 1738”). In fact, the chapel houses a deposition by the Luxembourg sculptor Bettina Scholl – Sabatini. The vicar de Nicolò visited the chapel on 1 March 1635 (during his holy visit), when the church was still being rebuilt, declaring it outside the walls, in the Gravicella district. When asked who had built the chapel, Don Giacomo de Russis replied, who stated that "in this place there was a small chapel with the figure of the Pietà, which they called S. Maria Piccenna, which was in ruins, and I for my devotion I decided to build a chapel for us to celebrate…”. Don Giacomo added that the small church under construction would be dedicated to the Madonna della Pietà, to celebrate her feast in the octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, which would be attended by some priests of her choice, who would sing vespers and mass. The visiting vicar ordered that the chapel be completed within two years, including the bell tower and bell; while, over the course of 5 years, once the altar and the painting of the Blessed Virgin of the Pietà were completed, the feast would be celebrated on the day of the Assumption (August 15), with the obligation of an annual fee of 15 grana in favor of the Monastery of S. Benedetto di Conversano, starting from 1637 and in perpetuity (Donato Mastromarino, "Castellana outside and inside the walls", vol. II).

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