Cathedral of San Benedetto

Conversano's cathedral, dedicated to Sant'Annunziata, was built in the late Romanesque style in the 12th and 13th centuries — the facade is characteristically restrained compared to the elaborate carved portals found at nearby Bari or Trani, but the proportions are satisfying and the setting, on a small piazza in the old town, is intimate. The bell tower beside it is slightly later, with pointed Romanesque arches.

The interior was substantially modified in the Baroque period and the original aisled nave has been compromised by accumulated decoration, but the 12th-century apse and some of the carved capital detail survive. Just beside the cathedral, the monastery of Sant'Benedetto — now used partly as an arts centre — has a cloister worth looking into when open.

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A story
The cathedral stands adjacent to the Benedictine monastery of Sant'Benedetto, which for centuries was run by nuns who wielded unusual authority — the abbesses of Conversano held rights that were nearly episcopal, including the power to grant dispensations and hear confessions. This extraordinary privilege, disputed by Rome for centuries, was finally suppressed in 1810 under Napoleonic law. Local historians still debate how a small Pugliese convent accumulated such ecclesiastical power.