Tourist Attraction in Trani:
Chiesa di Ognissanti

The church was probably founded in the twelfth century, as evidenced by several documents. The apses and sculptural decorations were instead attributed to the following century. The church was ruled by several abbots of an unspecified monastic community until the fifteenth century, when it became the property of the bishop of Conversano, Paolo de Turcolis, and later of his nephew. In 1479 it was donated to Pietro Lambertini, father of the jurist Cesare Lambertini: the family, as already mentioned originally from Ravello, maintained the patronage on the sanctuary until 1780, although for a brief period in the sixteenth century the patronage of other families from Ravenna was attested, like the Rogadeo and the Achonzaico, whose coats of arms, together with that of the Lambertini family, are carved in bas-relief on the architrave of the entrance door to the sacristy. Tradition and local historiography refer to the church of Ognissanti as a domus of the Templar Order, built inside their hospitals during the period of the Crusades. Although the presence of the Templars in the city at that time was historically established, together with that of another chivalric order, that of the Gerosolimitani, there are no historical documents that lead the church of Ognissanti directly to the Templars. The only historical evidence is a plaque placed near the right access door, from the twelfth century, on which is reported the epigraph of the abbot and doctor Constantine. "Hic Requiescit Costantinus Abbas Et Medicus Orate Pro Soul Eius" The Templar presence in Trani is attested since 1142, while that of the chaplains for the religious service is later than 1139, the year in which these figures were established with the issuance of the Omne bubble Datum Optimum by pope Innocenzo seondo. The abbot Constantine has long been considered as affiliated with the Templar Order, abbot-rector of the domus. The church has a portal on the façade with a richly carved band. The façade is located on the homonymous internal road, covered both by the external portico and by houses built in successive eras over the portico itself. The aisles are accessed by three rectangular doors, all surmounted by lunettes with fine decorations: in the central door and on the left one there are respectively the scene of the Annunciation and the image of two peacocks in the act of feeding with a vine shoot, symbol of the sacrament of the Eucharist. The most characteristic part of the exterior of the church is the back, facing the sea, which has three small protruding semicircular apses, whose shape resembles the back of the church of the Vallisa in Bari. Other similarities are found between All Saints and the church of Bari , like the presence of the front porch, the proximity to the sea, the period of construction and the presence of the community of Ravello. The interior of the structure is rectangular, divided into three naves with double portico, by means of columns supporting round arches. The central nave is covered with trusses, while the side aisle is covered by vaults. The structure does not have a transept. The columns that support the central nave are in African granite, the same material used for two external columns, with capitals of a composite type. The church houses several artistic paintings including a Madonna and Child with Byzantine influences of the sixteenth century, work of the madonnaro Rico da Candia. Some studies have focused on the possible astronomical and numerical references that offer the complex and its position: the most important is the position of the axis of the church. In the days of the equinox the rays of the Sun strike a capital, belonging to one of the columns of the front porch, on which the figure attributed to the Egyptian goddess Isis is carved; on the day of the winter solstice, the Sun instead hits a cruciform pillar, always placed in the portico.

Attractions in Trani