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Updated: June 1, 2025
The façade has three doors, and is divided by pilaster strips which emphasise the width of the nave; at either side of the central door is a shallow recess filling the space between it and the pilaster strips. The door itself has spiral and simple colonnettes in the jambs, with corresponding arch moulds of four orders.
Both of these arcadings have coupled colonnettes, and are manifestly much later than the lower part of the façade. The walls of the north aisle have an arcading separated into groups by pilasters, echoing the internal divisions, with a gallery above, like S. Nicola, Bari, and others of the Apulian churches. A cornice of corbelled arches crowns the nave wall.
The triforium arcade has round arches with coupled colonnettes of red marble on the face and varied caps; the voussoirs are alternately red and grey; and a string with carved leaf pattern, much like that at Traù, runs along the triforium, between the nave arcade and the balustrade. The nave arcade terminates at each end with a single arch.
This Cour du Cheval Blanc acquired its name from a plaster cast of Marcus Aurelius's celebrated steed which was originally placed here under a canopy or baldaquin held aloft by colonnettes. The moulds for this work were brought from Venice by Primaticcio and Vignole, but it was never cast in bronze and the statue itself disappeared in 1626.
All these figures have large heads, especially those standing under the round-arched arcade, with alternate twisted and ringed colonnettes. The lid has repoussé subjects upon all four surfaces: 1. Christ enthroned, blessing and holding a book, with the monograms IC and XC; in the corners the lion and eagle with books. 2. S. John with the eagle and monogram IONS. 3.
It occupies the space between the two niches above the archway, and the pierced window-slabs of the ninth century still remain in the little windows. The screen has two octagonal colonnettes with a cable necking, and rough caps with volutes, but no foliations support an arch beneath a steep gable; a Latin cross with griffins crouching on each side fills the space between.
In the centre is the octagonal font raised on three circular steps. It is 6 ft. 6 in. broad and 3 ft. 3 in. high, and has an enclosure in the centre. It is panelled on the sides, sometimes with two panels, each of which has round-headed sinkings like windows, sometimes with one panel containing three such sinkings, separated by coupled colonnettes; the cornice and base are moulded.
The shelf or cymatium of the entablature has round corners and is supported by pilaster projections above the colonnettes at each end and by a projecting central panel, all of these projections being vertical fluted in the frieze portion.
The façade is often decorated with slender colonnettes of painted wood, which bear no weight, and merely serve to lighten the somewhat severe aspect of the exterior. Of the internal arrangements, we know but little.
Instead of the usual pilasters the entablature is supported by two pairs of slender reeded colonnettes, and the fireplace opening is framed by moldings in which a torus enriched with a rope motive is prominent.
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