Chiesa di S. leone
The San Leone complex was founded by the Benedictines in the mid-XIth cent, outside the town
walls: it was mentioned in the Diplomatic Codex of Bari in 1105 and is documented in 1148
as a donation to the Abbey of Marquis Manfredi. Legend has it that it already existed in the IVth and
Vth cents. and was inhabited by the Basileans. What is certain is that 
the Monastery was rich and
powerful and besides boasting an appointment as "Royal Abbey", it was also given the privilege of
hosting the town's annual fair inside its spacious grounds, as is mentioned by Boccaccio in the Decameron
(X,VIII). Abandoned by the Benedictines and the Cistercians in the XVth cent, it underwent a major
decline. Later on, the complex was given by King Alfonso of Naples to the Congregation of the Olivetani,
who set to work on refubishing it and reinvesting the Monastery with the power and prestige it once
enjoyed. It was the Olivetani who built the XVIth cent. cloister, now still partly visible. After the suppression of the monastic Orders, the Church was once again abandoned and fell into ruin before being
finaly rescued and rebuilt by the Frati Minori Osservanti (1887) who had it consecrated again in 1898.
The Church's present structure dates from the XIIIth cent. though it was subjected to many alterations
over the centuries. On the South side are a fairly recent entrance doorway (the old one was closed in
during a restoration project) and a XIIIth cent. bell gable that coincides with the position of the transept.
On the West side, in Via De Gasperi, can be admired a beautifully crafted spoked rose window above
where the Church's main entrance was once presumably located. 
The interior was restored in 1886 by
an architect called Bernich: it comprises a single hall covered with a reconstructed vault ceiling which
took the place of the original two-panelled wooden gable ceiling. The hall is illuminated by six single
bay windows and terminates in an ogival arch which leads into the transept. The base of the present
main altar consists of an ancient capital whereas the altairs standing along the nave are in Neo-Gothic
style. The three walls of the transept are decorated with several fresco cycles, datable to the XIVth and
XVth cents, which were part of a single iconographical scheme which paid homage to the monastic
Orders, and in particular to that of the Benedictines. On the end wall of the choir are depicted a Christ
Enthroned borne by wo angels, the Apostles and further down, Hell and Paradise. On the right wall are
the four Evangelists and other Saints, and on the left wall is the great "Tree of the Cross". The cloister
was built in 1523 by the Olivetani but only two sides now remain: the whole was defined with columns
topped by refined capitals from which span the vaults of the portico.