Until 1729 the mother church of Miglionico celebrated in the Orthodox rite; only in that year was the Latin rite introduced. The building was already old by then, begun in the 14th century on the site of an earlier church and enlarged between 1515 and 1534 with the addition of the side chapels; the bell tower, on the left flank, dates from 1533.
What to see
The main reason to step inside is the polyptych by Cima da Conegliano, painted in 1499: 18 panels held together by a large poplar frame. The same church keeps a Crucifix carved in 1629 by the Franciscan friar Umile da Petralia and, overhead, the baroque organ built in 1749 by the master Rubino da Castellaneta with 321 pipes, some of them salvaged from a sixteenth-century instrument; it was restored in 1993.
The canvases are scattered across all three naves. In the apse hang a Virgin and Child in glory between Saints Eligius and Charles Borromeo and an Assumption, both attributed to Alessandro Fracanzano, father of the better known Cesare and Francesco, along with a painting by Pietro Antonio Ferro of 1607 showing the Virgin and Child with Saints Bartholomew and Martin. On the first altar of the right nave is the Madonna of the Rosary, signed by Girolamo Todisco and dated 1634; a little further on, the chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua holds two 16th-century reliefs and the wooden statue of the saint. Beside the second altar of the left nave stands a Deposition from the Cross by a pupil of Antonio Stabile.
Visiting
You go in through the stone-carved portal attributed to Nicola da Melissano, which echoes the church's original layout; above it, at the apex of the pediment, a 16th-century Virgin and Child. The interior has been reworked many times over the centuries, so read it for what it holds rather than as a whole: give the polyptych and the apse priority, and pick up the rest on the way back along the side naves.
Our editors' tip
Before going in, walk round to the left flank. That is where the baroque side portal opens, crowned by a lunette with a Pietà carved in stone by Altobello Persio; a few steps away the square bell tower rises in three tiers, and the second one carries a relief of Saints Peter and Paul with God the Father, which you need to step back a little to frame properly.