Torre Carnara

Strolling around the streets of the old town centre, amid alleys and stairs, one inevitably passes by the cathedral. Behind it, there is a round building coming out of the white limestone wall. It is easy to think that it is an apsis, which often characterizes the Greek churches. However, this is not the case. This strange round shape is, according to a local tradition, what is left of an ancient messapic building, nowadays part of the cathedral .

It is the so-called Torre della Palomba or della Carnara, used as charnel house of the nearby cemetery during the 18th century and then has become part of the cathedral. According to Domenico Albanese, doctor and local historian, in his “Istoria cronologica della città di Oria” (chronological history of the town of Oria) of 1678, during the 17th century “there was no stones or relics left belonging to the ancient”. This story may testifies to the fact that also Torre della Palomba has a recent origin, probably contemporary with the former medieval cathedral, substituted with a new one built during the eighteenth- century.