Verso una rilettura del duomo “vecchio” di San Corrado a Molfetta: architettura e arredo liturgico

The "old" cathedral of San Corrado in Molfetta was built where the almond-shaped peninsula meets the harbor basin, once bordered by the sea on its northern and western sides, with access from the port and from the town. The building hybridizes two architectural models common in the Terra di Bari between the 11th and 12th centuries: an "eastern block" with corner towers concealing the three apses, recalling the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari, and a longitudinal body with three domes in succession over the nave, flanked by barrel-vaulted aisles. Construction likely began under bishop Giovanni II (1179–1188?), when Molfetta was ruled by Robert II of Bassonville. Studied since the late 19th century, the cathedral has been linked in turn to early Christian eastern Mediterranean architecture, to the Benedictine three-domed churches of the Terra di Bari, and to Venice's St Mark's Basilica as an "East-West" synthesis. Recent scholarship distinguishes two building phases, reading the earlier as indebted to the Nicolaian model and the domes as a Mediterranean synthesis. Open questions remain on the building's phases, its crypt, and the choices made over two centuries of construction. This contribution combines architectural and art-historical analysis, examining the surviving medieval liturgical furnishings, to offer a deeper, interdisciplinary understanding of the medieval fabric.