Sant'Andrea, Romanesque-origin church in Barletta, Italy

Sant'Andrea stands on Via Sant'Andrea in Barletta's Santa Maria quarter, its west front raised about five metres above the street and reached by a staircase. The monumental portal has four columns on each side and an open tympanum carved with Christ between the Virgin and John the Baptist, with kneeling angels at the sides. Inside, three naves are divided by piers and arches, the central one roofed with wooden beams, and the side aisles hold twelve chapels.

A chapel dedicated to the Santissimo Salvatore, first documented in the 12th century, stood here with a Romanesque apse. The Della Marra family held it until 1532, when it passed to the Observant Friars Minor, who rebuilt it as a single-nave mendicant church and renamed it for Saint Andrew. A convent was founded alongside in 1578, and the nave was raised in 1701.

The church was long held by the Della Marra family, who ceded it in 1532 to the Observant Friars Minor; they renamed it after Saint Andrew and rebuilt it as a single-nave mendicant church. Many Barletta nobles chose its chapels as their burial place after donating to the friars. It became a parish in 1959.

The church is generally accessible to visitors who wish to see the architecture and artworks inside. Respectful entry is recommended since it remains an active place of worship and religious practice.

The five-metre difference between the street and the churchyard is not a raised foundation: the street level was lowered in the Angevin period to ease access to the sea, when a cliff between the walls and the shore could only be crossed by ramps and stairs. The whole Santa Maria district therefore sits higher than the land beyond the walls.