The church of the Immacolata, in Modugno, is in via X Marzo, the road to Carbonara di Bari that was once called «via de' Cappuccini» precisely because of this place. It was built together with the convent of the Capuchin friars between 1589 and 1591, by the testamentary wish of Nicola de Russis: the last heir, Antonia Miletto, fulfilled it by contributing to the building along with the Università of Modugno. The complex was enlarged in 1629 and restored in 1765. The convent was suppressed in the time of Joachim Murat; in 1869 it passed to the town council, and from 1894 housed an orphanage run by the Stimmatine sisters. In 1969 the council handed the church over to the archiepiscopal curia of Bari, which set up a parish there in 1974.
What to see
The church stands on an open space with several pines. The façade is covered by shallow rustication in limestone; the rectangular doorway has a lunette with bas-reliefs of chalice, host and angels, and above it are the Capuchin arms and a broad Baroque window. On the left rises a small bell gable. On this side remains the window of an old entrance, with the inscription «In anno 1589 - P. Totum 91» and the monogram of St Bernardino of Siena in the radiant sun. To the right of the church is the former convent, with a paved cloister of six round arches that keeps an old well; on the upper floor are the friars' twenty-six small cells.
The plan is the one typical of the Franciscan order: a single nave with, on the left, three communicating chapels, dedicated to St Paschal Baylon, the Sacred Heart and St Anthony. On the right four large arches, which once held altars, now hold paintings. On the barrel vault the main painting shows St Francis kneeling before the Crucifix; the floral decorations and the imitation marbles are from a restoration of the early twentieth century, ordered by the archpriest Romita. The high altar, of white marble, altered in 1858, holds the statue of the Immaculate in painted wood, probably by the Neapolitan Francesco Verzella, and four niches of Franciscan saints attributed to Francesco Picano; the twisted columns have been of cement since 1964, in place of the wooden ones.
Visiting
Opening and Mass times should be checked with the parish. At Christmas time the garden of the inner courtyard of the former convent hosts a living nativity scene.
Our editors' tip
Church and convent rose in a district outside the walls called «la fontana», where there was a public well built after the plague of 1522: it was dug into the rock for about sixty-six metres and, at least until the mid-eighteenth century, was the only spring water in the municipal territory, the reserve for times of drought, when the cisterns were not enough. It was closed in 1960, during the widening of the road.
