Piazza Sant’Oronzo

It was still called this in the 14th century, but when the Ostuni people decided to change the name of the square, they also decided to renovate it, hiring three architects to reform it: Ferdinando Ayroldi, Domenico Ciraci and Nicola de Anna.
Various buildings were demolished and the square rebuilt, and was refined with new buildings, with similar facades.

The spire

At the centre of the square, build from limestone in the mid-700s, the spire of Sant’Oronzo is a Baroque-style obelisk, which is more than 20 metres high, with a square base divided into horizontal bases, with a statue of the saint clothed in bishop’s robes at the top.
The spire provides a bridge between the medieval city and the modern city, and is the product of Ostuni’s recognition towards Saint Orontius, who saved the population from the plague in 1656.

The city’s palace

Today, it is the headquarters of the town hall, but was once the dwelling of Franciscan monks (1304-1809).
The architecture has two sides to it: the first is neoclassical, and is the one that looks over the Piazza della Libertà, and goes back to the architect Ayroldi, who planned it in 1861.
The second side is Baroque (at the back), and was designed by the engineer Pietro Magarelli, from 1739.

The Church of San Francesco

It is a church built around the midway point of the 18th century by Carlo and Giuseppe Fasano, after the earthquake of 1743 damaged the fourteenth-century church. The side of the late eighteenth-century was created by the architect Gaetano Jurleo (from Ostuni) in 1883, and is aligned with the side of the city’s palace.
Works from the previous century, such as the statues of San Francesco and Sant’Antonio from Padova (1930) carried out by the sculptor Francesco Bagnulo, and the bronze gate (1985), the work by the artist Egidio Giaroli (who goes by the name of Cavalluccio), must be highlighted.

The Church of the Spirito Santo

Built in 1637 to satisfy the desires of the bishop Melingi, it has the sole decorative element of a splendid Gothic gate, which came from the Church of Ognissanti, and then demolished. The gate goes back to 1450, and in the bezel, you can admire the “Dormitio Mariae”, or rather the Virgin on her death bed surrounded by the apostles.

Archaeological excavations

In the square, the discovery of a section of the ancient city walls stand out, when, to strengthen the defensive structures, Alfonso II (Duke of Calabria), the son of the Aragonese King Ferdinand I, decided to support an extension of the old fortifications, outlining their design personally in 1487. 

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