Overview
It is the oldest in Puglia. The Cathedral of San Cataldo in Taranto was originally dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, but was later dedicated to Saint Catald, Bishop, the city's patron saint. There was apparently an original structure from the 5th century AD, but the present-day cathedral was built by the Byzantines in the 10th century at the behest of Emperor Nicephorus II Phoca.
It underwent various structural and aesthetic changes up to the 11th century, and the last works date back to 1713, when the architect Mauro Manieri from Lecce made it a Baroque masterpiece, with medallions and niches with saints and angels that can still be seen today. In the interior, with a wealth of polychrome inlaid marble and stucco, is the Chapel of San Cataldo, which preserves patron's mortal remains, rediscovered in the Baptistery in 1071.
Artworks worthy of note include the statues of the Assumption and of Saint Catald, and the medieval floor mosaic, rediscovered in 1844 and attributed to a certain Petroius, from between 1163 and 1165. The crypt also contains frescoes dating from the 14th and 15th centuries.
