MAJOR ALTAR

 

In the nave of the choir there is the high altar in white marble which, since 1950, has replaced the ancient late-Baroque altar.

On the central wall, there is a beautiful wooden Crucifix from the end of the 15th century , restored at the end of the 20th century.

In the central wall, at the top, inside a stucco frame, stands out a precious canvas depicting the Madonna Odegitria with the souls in Purgatory (18th century). "Odegitria" means "She who shows the way": this title spread starting from an icon painted in Constantinople in the fifth century (hence also the title of "Madonna di Costantinopoli"), which in turn draws from a iconographic tradition traced back to the evangelist San Luca.

On the right side , you can see the access door to the adjacent convent of the Teresians, now buffered, which houses a small fountain, with a quadrangular basin in green Gimigliano marble, surmounted by a decoration characterized by a shell valve of the so-called " pilgrim ".

On the left side , the access door to the sacristy; both doors have stone frames, the result of the recovery of building materials from the old Norman castle.

The choir has a barrel-vaulted ceiling made of reeds, decorated with eighteenth-century stuccoes.

On both external side walls, two polychrome stucco decorations, dating back to the early twentieth century, depicting the Coat of Arms of the Archconfraternity of SS. John the Baptist and the Evangelist. High up on the same walls, the faces, in polychrome stucco, of two angels.