Troia - Concattedrale di Troia

Troia was probably founded by Greek settlers under the name of Aecae. The current Troia was founded as a fortified town in 1018 the by the Byzantine general Basil Boiannes. For long it was a stronghold against the Normans and got besieged by the emperors Henry II and Frederick II, who destroyed the town in 1229.

He did not touch the "Concattedrale della Beata Vergine Maria Assunta in Cielo", erected in the first quarter of the 12th century where a Byzantine church formerly stood, that was apparently constructed largely from the remains of Roman buildings.

The Concattedrale di Troia is reckoned a masterpiece of Apulian Romanesque architecture and is particularly noted for the rose window and the bronze doors of the west front. Once it was the seat of the Bishops of Troia, it is now a co-cathedral in the diocese of Lucera-Troia.

The central rose window of the facade is very complex. The upper half is framed by a semicircle populated by strange and mythical animals. Some sculptures, integrated into the Concattedrale´s facade seem to be older, somehow "glued" in here. Here may be three spoliae. On the left is a stone with an inscription (Roman?), the head of the (nude!) spinario (?) does not really fit the body.