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, once the seat of the Bishops of Troia, now a co-cathedral in the diocese of Lucera-Troia, is reckoned a masterpiece of Apulian Romanesque architecture.

In particular, it is noted for the bronze doors of the main portal, created by Oderisio da Benevento in niello technique. For Ursula Mende ("Die Bronzetüren des Mittelalters") these are medieval masterpieces.

Some parts were added during a restoration in 1573. The inscription on the four panels below reads

An[n]o ab incarnatio[n]e/d[omi]ni n[o]stri Ie[s]v Xr[ist]i mil[e]simo/centisimo nondecimo/indictione dvodecima

Anno pontificat[us] d[omi]ni/Kalisti P[a]p[e] secvndi p[rimo]/ann[o] dvcat[us] W[ilelmi] Rocerii/clo[rio]si dvcis filii nono
Willelmvs secvnd[us]/hui[us] Troiane sedis ep[i]s[copus]/erat svi an[no] XII has/portas fieri fecit

DE PROPRIO ECCLESIAE AERARIO IPSAMQUE FABRICAM A FUNDAMENTIS FERE EXIT

what translates to

In the 1119th year from the incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and in the twelfth indiction /

In the first year of the pontificate of the Lord Pope Callixtus II / and the ninth year of the rule of Duke William son of Roger the Glorious /

William the Second, who was bishop of the See of Troia, in his twelfth year caused these doors to be made /

From his own wealth for the church and the fabric of the same to be raised almost from the foundations.