Santuario Madonna Della Salute (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Health), Taranto

The sanctuary of the Madonna della Salute (also known as the sanctuary of Monteoliveto , or church of Monteoliveto , a name dating back to the occupation of the complex by the Olivetan order ) is a church located in the ancient village of Taranto. The construction of the church, initially called the "church of Jesus", was started in 1686 at the behest of the Society of Jesus . This, in all probability, had arrived in the city for the first time in 1612 , settling definitively in 1622 , the year in which the Company inherited the Palazzo Visconti, converted into a college. It seems that a rudimentary church was attached to the complex, which the Jesuits decided to replace with the current factory as soon as they could. The icon that gives its name to the temple is a seventeenth-century copy, most likely created by the Lecce painter Antonio Verrio, of the Salus populi romani , a Byzantine icon attributed by tradition to Saint Luke and venerated in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome . Its usual placement is on the main altar of the church.

Also known as the church of Monteoliveto, this wonderful architectural work has been the center of faith for the inhabitants of the Isola Madre of Taranto in past centuries. Inside there is a seventeenth-century copy of the Salus populi romani.

Built in 1729 by the Jesuit Tommaso Vanneschi known as Carrarese, it is located in the historic center of Taranto, a few steps from the Cathedral of San Cataldo, a beautiful church rich in history and charm linked to the memory of the Jesuit Fathers. It is the only church in Taranto with a cross plan on which stands an imposing starry dome 10 meters in diameter whose plume is clearly visible above the roofs of the old city. From its lantern you can admire the painting of the dove of the Holy Spirit. The four evangelists are frescoed below: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John represented respectively according to the iconography of the angel, the lion, the ox and the eagle. Inside, two altars are visible at the entrance: on the right a marble altar dedicated to the Archangel San Raffaele, on the left a stone altar dedicated to Sant'Ignazio di Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. At the end of the right arm of the transept there is the marble altar of the Crucifix and on the opposite wall the altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But the altar of greatest artistic importance is the high altar on which the painting from which the sanctuary takes its name is placed: the Madonna della Salute. The Virgin holds a handkerchief in her left hand, an iconographic symbol that indicates Mary's readiness to console and comfort the sick, while Jesus blesses with his right hand and holds the book of the Word of God in her left hand. ***PH***