The Church of Saint Mary the Crowned - Corato

The church of Saint Mary the Crowned rises up on the ruins of a XV a.C. century sanctuary that was consecrated to Saint Cataldo that was Corato’s patron saint. That church had neel built since a peasant had an epiphany during which  the patron saint asked him to build a holy place where praying in name of himself. The old church was connected to a convent (that is nowadays the city council building)  whose monks prayed the holy picture of Saint Mary the crowned as well. Since the devotion to Mary highly grew up, the monks decided to build a new church that could have host pilgrims coming from the neighboring cities. So then the old church was replaced with a new larger building. During the xx century the saint Mary Crowned was closed after the French invasion, it was reopened last century. The outside of the Church is fully covered of Murgia’s stones.