the Church

The remarkable place of worship, now dedicated to the Most Holy Crucifix and to San Giovanni di Dio, was certainly part of an important religious complex (Monastery of the Poor Clares) of which there are testimonies since 1363 (approximately). The scarcity of the documentation does not allow the various historical and construction phases of the structure to be traced with certainty. From a notarial deed dated to 1673 we learn exclusively of the construction of a convent by the Discalced Carmelites on the ground occupied by the ruins of an ancient female monastery.

The conventual structure was abandoned a few years after its construction because it was defined deteriorated and subsequently strongly compromised by the earthquake of 1743. The following years were characterized by numerous consolidation interventions completed in the first decade of the 1800s and with the change of intended use that led to it becoming a civil and military hospital managed by the Company of hospital friars of San Giovanni di Dio. It was precisely the change of use of the spaces and the assignment to the new religious order that led to the modification of the name of the Most Holy Crucifix and Saint John of God.

Adjacent to the former convent is the church, originally dedicated to Santa Teresa and dated to 1669, which despite having been built by mostly local workers is characterized by the beauty of the lines and the internal architectural solutions. Reference point in the faith of the inhabitants of the “Taranto Nuova” of the time, it was elected as the first parish of Borgo Umbertino in the 1920s. The general plan is a typical Latin cross surmounted by a dome and divided into three naves. The interior furnishings are characterized by the splendid workmanship and the refinement of the execution. Remarkable, the beautiful wooden statue of Sant’Antonio (dated to the seventeenth century) and the venerated SS. Wooden crucifix (defined as miraculous), the work of friar Angelo da Pietrafitta in the first thirty years of the 1600s.

The frescoes in the presbytery, the Crucifixion and the Miracle of Elijah on Mount Carmel are by Tommaso della Volpe (1883-1967) from Romagna, while on the terminal walls of the naves it is possible to admire two large canvases dating from the eighteenth century. depicting, on the left, the Martyrdom of San Bartolomeo and on the right Saints and Angels.