Acquaviva delle Fonti Cathedral

Acquaviva delle Fonti Cathedral (Duomo di Acquaviva delle Fonti, Concattedrale di Sant'Eustachio) is the main church of Acquaviva delle Fonti, dedicated to Saint Eustace. It is now a co-cathedral of the Diocese of Altamura-Gravina-Acquaviva delle Fonti. Previously it was the palatine church of Acquaviva delle Fonti, which became part of the territorial prelature of Altamura e Acquaviva delle Fonti formed by Pius IX in 1848, when he added Acquaviva to the existing territorial prelature of Altamura.

Built in Romanesque style in the 12th century (1158) on the ruins of a small temple with Messapian origins by the will of the Norman feudal lord Roberto Gurguglione, it was rebuilt in a Renaissance style in the 16th century. The church was originally dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and only later was renamed for the martyr Saint Eustace. The primitive church, now run down and insufficient for the needs of the increased population, was rebuilt from 1529, when Giovanni Antonio Donato Acquaviva was the feudal lord of Acquaviva. Finished and opened for worship in 1594 during the government of Alberto Acquaviva, the church was consecrated in 1623 in honor of Saint Eustace by the archbishop of Bari in Canosa, Ascanio Gesualdo. Since the beginning it was called palatine, that is, belonging to the king (from the Latin palatium meaning "royal palace"), probably to preserve it from the aims of the archbishop of Bari. Palatine churches for their jurisdiction did not depend on the ordinary ecclesiastical authority, but rather that of the king, who usually appointed and paid clerics chosen by him. There are currently four such churches on Apulian soil: the cathedral in question in Acquaviva, the cathedral of the Assumption of Saint Mary in Altamura, the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Bari and the Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel in Monte Sant'Angelo. On 13 January 1859, after a stop in Acquaviva and on his way to Bari for the marriage of the Crown Prince Francesco with Maria Sophie of Bavaria, the penultimate king of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand II, attended the plain mass in the crypt of the cathedral.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).