The church of Sant'Antonio Abate is a parish church in Fasano. In the early seventeenth century the town's clergy gave the Observant Friars Minor a garden where, with the authorisation of Pope Clement VIII and thanks to the wealthy families, a convent for twelve friars was built, together with a chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin, from which a confraternity of the same name arose. The enlargement of the church was finished in 1753, when it was consecrated. After the suppression of the religious orders the convent became a primary school, until 1927, and the church passed to the confraternity of the Immacolata; on 25 March 1924 it became a parish, the town's second after the mother church.
What to see
The complex is recognisable by its dome on a circular drum, with the onion-spired bell tower beside it. Inside, the high altar is dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin; on the left are the altars of Saint Lucy and Our Lady of the Rosary, on the right that of Saint Anthony of Padua and a small chapel of the Divine Passion.
Next door is the seventeenth-century cloister of the Observant Friars: the lunettes of its walls are painted with the life of Saint Francis, with episodes from the Little Flowers.
Visiting
The church was restored in 2008. The cloister is municipal property and opens to the public only for cultural events; mass times should be checked with the parish.
Our editors' tip
Corso Vittorio Emanuele was once called corso di Sant'Antonio precisely because of this church.
