The Lioness and Rose Window
Evidently, with only three cannons, the people of Altamura had defended the city from the siege of the Bourbon's troops in 1799. What are the odds the city could have won? Zero. The people were raped, humiliated, and looted. It was completely a total lost. Having little knowledge about the city, it was actually supremely ironic that earlier within the year of the siege, the city had just actually proclaimed its Republic and planted the Tree of Freedom as the symbols of the French Revolution, to flourish the freedom, equality, and fraternity. However, despite the lost, they still fought for their life, struggled to survive, and now it has become a self-prosperous town. It even influenced the whole Italy and its unity in 1860 with their spirit and courage. They undoubtedly deserve to be called as "The Lioness of Puglia”, a proud and rebellious city.
This heroic story would not be heard if I hadn’t starved that morning. It was early in Matera. Catching the sunrise and running around the city of thousand steps left me in empty appetite. If it was not because of the smell of fresh baked bread, I would not have peeked inside the pasticeria and got myself a treat. Turned out that the bread was indeed fresh and crisp. I was hinted by the hostess there that the bread had a long shelf life and had the only one D.O.P certification in Europe. Moreover, it was only produced in Altamura. Without thinking, I looked to my friend and so did she, and our eyes were opened brightly. There was no need of data encryption to reveal that we were in accord to visit the city.
It was a beautiful Sunday in Spring. We had not listed Altamura in our itinerary, as we actually planned to drive across the region from Matera up north to Castel del Monte through the hilly countryside, Parco dell'Alta Murgia. However, you never knew what would come to you. We entered the town. The street and building were decorated with heraldic flags and banners which displays varieties of symbols, colours, sizes, and shapes. Little we know that they were looking forward to the medieval festival dedicated to Frederick II of Swabia long before the siege who stopped there during his return journey from the Crusades.
Speaking about the history, Altamura had been re-founded by Frederick II in the 13th century when he began to reconstruct the city. Altamura was declared as a free city and dependent only to its King. Since then, the Greeks, Arabs, and Jews came in to the neighbourhoods and they grew up with the city. During the feudal rules, the city became huge and constructions of palaces and churches took place. Each community lived closely and exclusively, and put their own style onto it. Now they are known as the cloisters. They are all over 200 cloisters scattered in the city, little squares and small enclosed courtyards with house sitting above it, belonging to different ethnic groups, such a historical heritage. An Arabic cloister, the cloister looks like a narrow and small road with a well to collect the rainwater. While the Greek cloister are made of mostly shingles with a well in the centre. The most characteristic one is a cloister called Patella. This multi-cultural cloisters management is the first one and probably the only kind I have ever seen in Italy, not to mention the architecture and the churches. This also explains the heraldic flag differences among the cloisters we saw there.
We were then stopped at Altamura Cathedral which Frederick II began to build it as one of the four imperial basilicas in Puglia. We went in and saw that the interior is decorated in Baroque style such as the paintings and the altars. The magic was when we looked up. The colour of the wall and the marble columns were washed-away pastel colours like the macaroons. We gasped as we didn’t expect it at all. Lucky enough that the upper floor could be accessed from the stairs behind the cathedral.
Another element of the church was its superb facade with two towers, and a portal which is among the most beautiful in Puglia. The main feature of the cathedral itself is the Puglian-styled rose window, with 15 small columns radially intermingling, perched on the Gothic styled portal which sculpted the 22 panels consisting of the Christ's life story, guarded by 2 sculptured lions looking inward. From the inside, I could see the silhouette of the shape which brought me an awe. The construction of the cathedral gave such a big impact that each community also built their own religious places. What can be seen scattered in the city now is full with different kind of style of architectures from Romanesque Cathedral to Orthodox Greeks style.
