Bitonto diocese
The former bishopric of Bitonto (lat. Dioecesis Bituntina ) in Italy was first mentioned in 1089 under Urban II as a suffragan of Bari. The first bishop known by name Johannocarus is mentioned in 1176, his successors are also anonymous, we only learn of a Dominicus in 1240, who, however, had to live in exile from 1243, like his successors Pancratius and Teodorico Borgognoni . Since Bernhard Caracciolo (1266–1280) the bishops had access to their diocese again. It belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Bari .
After it had already been united with the Diocese of Ruvo on June 27, 1818 , it was once again separated from this on September 30, 1982 and made independent. But already on September 30, 1986 came the final end of the diocese , which was now united with the archdiocese of Bari .
San Valentino (Bitonto)
San Valentino is the purest and most perfect creation of a type of building that was founded with San Nicola in Bari and is called "Bares Romanesque" after this city. Bitonto Cathedral is also the most richly decorated church in Puglia. San Valentino was built around 1175–1220 / 30, which corresponds to a relatively short construction period, to which the church owes its uniform and exemplary appearance.
In Bitonto we have the phenomenon typical of this building school that the attached chapels point outside and not inside the church. Above it, of course, there is also an outward-facing mezzanine, so again as a sign of Norman influence there is a strong three-dimensional structure of the entire wall, including on the facade through the middle row of windows. This construction is perhaps not necessarily intended as a chapel, but as a Byzantine niche pillars.
The flat-roofed three-aisled interior of the pillar basilica has, like on the outside, a gallery above the aisles, similar to San Pellegrino in Trani . Such buildings have more resemblance to the Romanesque architecture of the cultural area in Germany than to contemporary churches in northern Italy. This is partly related to the Norman influence in southern Italy, which came to Germany via France in northern Europe.
Pulpit by Master Nicolaus
The most important work of art in the church is the pulpit by Magister Nicolaus from 1229. The pulpit relief on the outside of the staircase is a lesson in the Staufer imperial metaphysics . During the crusade the city had fallen away from Emperor Friedrich II , but was regained shortly afterwards. This relief was created as an atonement memorial by placing four Staufer rulers next to one another in a direct ascending line: Friedrich Barbarossa, handing his scepter in his left hand to his son Heinrich. In addition - one level higher - Friedrich II. And finally his son Konrad IV or his son Heinrich VII. The latter is open whether the inaccurate dating. Only two have a crown, namely Frederick I as the founder of the dynasty and Frederick II as the current ruler.
It commemorates the sermon of Nicholas of Bari , which he gave in the summer of 1229. In it, Nikolaus had brought the Staufen house closer to the biblical house of David and declared it to be the final emperor family.
The relief grows out of plant ornaments similar to a family tree. A bird at the foot of the relief represents a mixture of the Staufer eagle and the bird phoenix, the symbol of immortality, similar to the ancestral line of Christ on medieval reliefs, on which Frederick II consciously leaned again here. The symbolic statement of this depiction is: the Hohenstaufen dynasty will also rule for all eternity - which, however, should not be true.
See also: List of Roman Catholic Dioceses , List of Former Catholic Dioceses , List of Bishops of Bitonto
literature
- Walther Holtzmann : Italia Pontificia IX: Samnium - Apulia - Lucania . Berlin 1962, p. 356.
- Norbert Kamp : Church and monarchy in the Staufer Kingdom of Sicily. I: Prosopographical foundation: Dioceses and bishops of the Kingdom 1194–1266 , Part II [Münstersche Medieval Writings, 10.I, 2], Munich 1975, pp. 608–618.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Fillitz : The Middle Ages I. Propylaen Art History Vol. 5. Frankfurt am Main / Berlin [1969] 1990, p. 220.