Chiesa di S. Gaetano(A)
Although incomplete, this architectonically valuable church was built by the Teatini, a monk order that settled in Bitonto at the beginning of the 17th century. This slender and imposing church rises on the site where the ancient St. John's Baptistery Church once stood.
The architect and monk of the same order, Dionisio Volpone di Parabita, designed it. Its construction began in 1609 but it was only consecrated in 1730 by the Bishop Luca Della Gatta. All that's left of the original convent, built in 1609 behind the church, is a part of a wall next to the apse and some underground rooms wich are now used as residential dwellings.
A square and a wide flight of stairs lead to the entrance of the church. Its ashlar facade rises solemnly and is characterized by elegant severe lines and a nice sense of balance between voids and solids. It is divided into two sections by an elegant balustrade. Its massive walls are made slender by pilaster strips and niches, by an imposing portal with a broken tympanum and an aligned window above it, and they end with a slender triangular tympanum.The spacious rectangular hall inside the church is divided into two bays and features, in its lower part, the big round arches of the four interconnected chapels placed on each side of the church, and in its upper part, the same number of windows illuminating the finely frescoed interior. On the counter-facade are images of St. Patrick and St Gregory; on the lateral walls other Saints are despicted.
The church hall ends in a semicircular apse, The lacunar ceiling is decorated with paintings by the local painter Carlo Rosa (1613-1678): the central painting depicts the triumph of the three patron saits of this church: St. Gaetan, St. Nicholas and Saint'Andrea d'Avellino. Other noteworthy paintings: St. Nicholas killing pagan idols, St. Nicholas purifyring a water spring, St. Nicholas setting Adeodatus free from the emir's refectory where he was made a slave. On the triumphal arch there are other frescoes by Carlo Rosa portraying St. Peter and St. Paul; the painters of the 17th century frescoes "The blood of Christ" and "The crucifixion" are anonymous. On the right-hand side, in the first chapel owned in the past by the Sylos Sersale family, there is a richly decorated Baroque altar carved in stones from Lecce dating 1696, and a 17th century canvas representing the Nativity of the Virgin, probably painted by Nicola Gliri or Andrea Miglionico.