The Chapel of San Cesario had this name in 1775 when the wooden statue of the Saint of the same name was sculpted and placed in the central niche above the baroque altar present in the same.

 

The chapel aroused deep veneration in our ancestors who saw placed here the effigies of the holy martyrs, whose intercession was considered more effective on the occasion of illnesses and other calamities or needs. In fact, besides the statue of San Cesario, who died a martyr in Nicomedia, here you can admire the statues of San Sebastiano, San Vito and the bust of San Biagio.

 

That of San Sebastiano, martyred by arrow shots during the persecution by the Emperor Diocletian (304 AD) and venerated as a protector against the pestilence, stands out for its strong artistic evidence. Signed and dated 149 ... (the last number is illegible because the base is chipped at that point), it is the first statue of Stephen, as far as known, existing in Putignano and among the first of his conspicuous artistic production, here transferred from the homonymous church. Naked body slightly stretched back and hit by some arrows, hands tied to a trunk placed behind the shoulders, right leg still supporting the weight of the body and left advanced and not very flexed, the statue was sculpted in the round, perfect in weighting, represents the first affirmation in Puglia of the Renaissance conception of the Saint-Hero, according to the lesson of the great Florentine sculptors of the time.

 

San Vito, one of the most popular saints since the Middle Ages and invoked above all to ward off chorea, a degenerative disease of the neurological system, lethargy that is pathological sleep and the bite of poisonous and hydrophobic beasts, is represented in the guise of a young man as he suffered the martyrdom at 15, according to traditional iconography, with a cross in his hand, a symbol of the Christian faith, and the emblematic dogs that accompany him. The statue, in polychrome local stone, was sculpted in 1575, as indicated on the base, and has all the characters of the late. Renaissance. Of modest artistic workmanship and uncertain movement, it reveals some pleasantness in some details such as the sixteenth-century clothes so well-finished, the reclining and pensive face, a graceful tuft of well-designed hair that curls on the forehead. The unknown author could be a disciple or successor of Stephen, operator of his still active school, who continues the Master's lesson by coloring the statues for a naturalistic relevance.

 

At the center of the altar, the polychrome wooden bust of San Biagio who died a martyr in 316 AD. at the time of the emperor Licinius and revered as a protector against the evils of the throat. He is the minor patron of Putignano together with San Cesario.

 

A deposed Christ, in stucco, much venerated during Holy Week, can be admired, protected by a glass window, below the altar table.

 

The two canvases on the side walls, of modest workmanship, depict "The fall of Christ under the Cross" and a balustrade in local stone delimits the chapel: it is the work, like that of the next chapel, by a group of talented Putignano artisans of the beginning of the 20th century.