"A torchlight procession of one" - The choir of Santa Maria Maggiore in Barletta (Apse reconstruction)

The article examines the newly restored apse in the church of Sta Maria Mag giore, Barletta. As an example of an ambulatory with radiating chapels not usually found in Italy, the choir has been associated with French architect s who followed Charles of Anjou to southern Italy after his conquest of the kingdom of Naples in 1266. However, a detailed examination of the structur e and its plan reveals that the apse was entirely the product of a local wo rkshop, and the sources of its plan are more likely to be found in late thi rteenth-century monuments in Italy.