Between the 12th and 13th centuries, the Romanesque-style building was erected, featuring a longitudinal layout with three naves divided by pillars, including apses, a slightly protruding transept, and a salient façade divided by pilasters, modeled after the architectural plan of the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari. Likely during the 14th century, galleries were opened over the side naves, and ribbed vaults were constructed over the side aisles, replacing the original wooden ceiling.
**Description:** The tempera painting on panel follows the Hodegetria scheme with influences from the Kikkotissa model, sharing the typology of the Child’s short tunic. The Virgin wears a maphorion painted in azurite, adorned with dense folds and fastened with a collar around her neck. The Divine Child sits on Mary’s left arm, holding a scroll and blessing in the Greek manner. The facial features are sharply defined, with thick shadows. The painting, iconographically similar to the Madonna della Madia in Monopoli, has been attributed by critics to a local 13th-century workshop influenced by styles from the opposite Adriatic coast (P. and M. D’Elia). Calò Mariani proposed a connection with 14th-century Greek works (the Hodegetria Madonna in the National Museum of Belgrade and the one in St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki), emphasizing the unique formal characteristics of the Conversano icon and not ruling out an origin from an overseas workshop.
**Image:** Icon
**Location:** Other
**Collection of ex-votos:** No
One of the earliest records of devotion to the Madonna della Fonte dates back to 1134, when Robert of Bassavilla, Count of Conversano, had the Marian effigy imprinted on his seal.
The written legend recalls the first bishop of Conversano, Simplicius, who in 487 (in some sources, 489) went on a missionary journey to Africa, where he converted the Vandal Bremo and his family. Upon returning to Conversano, he founded a small church dedicated to St. Sylvester and four chapels in honor of the Virgin, placed at the four cardinal points in Conversano’s territory (one near the castle, another near the spring in Palude, another near St. Mark, and another in the Padula district). Thus, in written tradition, there is no ancient source regarding the arrival of the icon in Conversano. In oral tradition, the two versions merge.
According to oral tradition, Simplicius secretly stole an icon of the Virgin at night to save it from the burning of images. Discovered, he was rescued by Bremo, who had him board a ship and gave him three bags of gold: one for the journey, another to build a chapel dedicated to St. Sylvester, and the last for the poor. A strong wind forced Simplicius to land on the beach of Cozze, from where a procession of faithful accompanied the icon on the first Saturday of May in 487 to Conversano, where it was placed in the crypt of the cathedral.
A plaque mounted on the façade documents a restoration carried out under Bishop Pietro D’Itri (1359–74), the extent of which remains to be assessed and which likely involved the side naves and completed the decoration (a fresco in the left apse). In 1877–78, work began to remove 18th-century additions under the direction of Conversano architect Sante Simone. In 1911, the church was almost entirely destroyed in a fire, after which a radical restoration was undertaken to return it to its Romanesque appearance.
70014 Conversano BA, Italy
