The church of San Domenico is a Gothic church in Andria, built with its adjoining convent in 1398 by Lady Sveva Orsini, widow of the duke of Andria Francesco I del Balzo, and dedicated to the Madonna dell'Umiltà.
What to see
The Gothic layout has been reworked over the centuries. A stone staircase leads to the façade, with a simple front, with a Renaissance portal of 1510: on the architrave is a shell with the Virgin and Child on her knees, three frames with four seraph heads, and at the base of the piers bas-reliefs with God looking at Adam and with Adam and Eve beside the tree of sin. The interior has a single nave, with five marble altars, which before the 19th century were thirteen. In the sacristy is kept the body of Duke Francesco II del Balzo; above his tomb stood the white marble bust showing him in the habit of a Dominican tertiary, now in the Diocesan Museum and attributed by scholars to Domenico Gagini or to Francesco Laurana. The bell tower, forty-three metres high, is in Baroque style and was completed in 1769.
The papal bull by which Boniface IX authorised the founding of the convent is of 25 March 1398, through the intercession of the inquisitor Fra Angelo da Barletta; the convent came about with the donation of a garden by Lady Sveva Orsini to the Dominicans, to whom the church was also entrusted. In 1530 the general study of the Dominican province of Apulia was moved there, and in 1571, according to the sources, Fra Jordanus de Nola, that is the young Giordano Bruno, was assigned there. In 1809 the convent was used as a prison.
Visiting
The church is in Andria; opening hours and service times should be checked with the parish, because the sources consulted do not give them.
Our editors' tip
Look at the portal of 1510: the shell on the architrave with the Virgin and Child, and the bas-reliefs at the base of the piers with Adam and Eve by the tree of sin, are the most carefully worked part of the façade.
