Built, probably in the second half of 1500 on the remains or integrating a previous building dedicated to Santa Maria della Misericordia, the Church of Carmine in Taranto is undoubtedly one of the most famous churches in the City of the Two Seas. Remodeled several times and adapted to the artistic trends of the time, it is currently embellished with a peculiar neoclassical taste dating back to the first thirty years of the twentieth century.

The main facade is characterized by severe lines softened by figured capitals and empty niches arranged in overlapping pairs. Along the entablature the dedication to the Madonna del Carmine is easily readable, while above a majestic quadrangular aedicule stands in the center of which is the coat of arms of Archbishop Ferdinando Bernardi (1935-1962). The façade facing Piazza della Vittoria is softened by the presence of a row of four circular windows, a balcony for blessings and an unusual bell tower decorated with statues of angels. A further element of uniqueness, very rare to find in other contexts, is the presence of a series of commercial premises housed on the street level and overlooking Via D'Aquino. The interior, with a Latin cross shape, with a small dome at the intersection of the arms, has a single nave along which there are two small side chapels and niches in which the simulacra that make up the procession of the Mysteries of Good Friday are kept.

Inside a small chapel, on the right side, there is a fragment of a column on which, according to tradition, St. Peter celebrated a sort of Eucharist during his stay in the city, as attested by an epigraph commissioned in 1651 by Archbishop Caracciolo and placed on the niche together with an icon depicting the Saint. This precious, as much discussed relic, was originally kept inside the church of San Pietro della Porta, which was demolished in 1577 to facilitate further enlargement of what would later become the Navigable Canal.

In the transept there is a series of exquisite paintings, among which the “Maddalena dei Pazzi” by Paolo De Matteis is certainly noteworthy.

Inside the church, the simulacra that make up the famous Procession of the Mysteries of Tarantino Good Friday are preserved. Of the many that make up the rich statuary corpus, the only objects of daily veneration of the faithful are that of Our Lady of Sorrows and that of the Dead Jesus, both of the Neapolitan school of 1700 and donated by the noble Calò family to the Confraternity of Carmine to perpetuate the tradition of the Procession. which had been introduced by them to Taranto. The rich and certainly valuable group of statues that make up the procession is embellished by the splendid Christ in the Garden of Sacquegna and by three statues (Ecce Homo, Cristo alla Colonna and the Waterfall) signed by Giuseppe Manzo (1849 - 1942) defined the " Michelangelo della Cartapesta ”and personally delivered by the artist in 1901.