An Armchair Traveller's History of Apulia

by Seward, Desmond

  Bisceglie

  Judging by the evidence of numerous dolmens in the hinterland of the city, the area was inhabited from early times; but it is first mentioned in 1042 when it fell to the Norman Robert Guiscard who gave it in fee to Pietro, Count of Trani. The latter fortified the town in 1060 and encouraged the inhabitants of the surrounding villages to move to Bisceglie. It was greatly enlarged by Frederick II who built the first castle, and became a prosperous city under the Angevines. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it belonged to the Del Balzo but then passed to the Spanish Crown which in 1512 raised the present walls. The Spanish expelled the Jewish community and all heretics from the city – they were allowed to visit it on business for 3 days but staying any longer resulted in forfeiture of goods and corporal punishment. The Cathedral, founded by the Normans in 1073, like so many, was considerably altered in the eighteenth century. Bisceglie welcomed the Napoleonic troops but the French were kicked out by a Russian fleet who returned the city to the Bourbons.

  Bitonto

  An important city in pre-Roman times when it became a Municipium on the Via Traiana. Sacked by the Catapan Zaccaria in 975, from the eleventh century it gradually recovered and its prosperity (derived from the olive oil which the Venetians considered the best in Italy) is shown by the splendid thirteenth century Romanesque cathedral, one of the finest in Apulia. From 1507 (amongst several other cities) it was the fief of Gonzalo de Cordoba, The Great Captain. In 1551 the city bought its independence at the cost of 86,000 ducats.

  Bovino

  Bovino was the Roman Vibinum, an Osco-Samnite city where Hannibal established himself in 217 BC before the battle of Cannae. A fortified centre in the early Middle Ages, it was part of the Duchy of Benevento. The castle (in which one can now stay) was built by the Normans, who reorganised the Byzantine cathedral, which was then altered again in the fourteenth century. During the Brigand’s War Bovino was occupied by Carmine Donatello Crocco. Now, according to a large sign on the road from the valley, it is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Italy.

  Brìndisi

  Settled by the Messapians in the Bronze Age, Brìndisi traded with the Mycenaeans. It became a Greek city, then in 244 BC a Roman colony and naval base, connected with Rome by the Via Appia and the Via Traiana. In the early Middle Ages it belonged to Goths, Byzantines and Lombards, the latter holding it from the seventh to the tenth centuries when it reverted to Byzantine rule. During this period it was destroyed by the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig II, in 868, and sacked by the Saracens. In 1071 it became part of the Norman Principality of Tàranto and, until the death of Frederick II Hohenstaufen (who built the Swabian castle), was the principle point of departure for crusades and pilgrimages to the Holy Land. In 1456 it was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt by Ferdinand I. From 1496-1509 it was ruled by Venice, but was reconquered by Spain and began a long decline. Then it came under Austrian rule and finally to the Bourbons who cleared the harbour and brought new prosperity to the city. The main sites of historical interest in the city are the Roman column at the end of the Via Appia, the mosaic floor in the cathedral and the Templar church of San Giovanni al Sepolcro. Outside the city is one of the few Gothic churches in Apulia, Santa Maria del Casale. Built by Phillip of Anjou, it has notable frescoes from the fourteenth century.

  Canosa di Puglia

  One of the oldest uninterruptedly inhabited cities in Italy. The site was occupied by the Dauni since 6000 BC and the city itself was founded by Greeks. An ally of Rome at the Battle of Cannae it became first a colony of veterans and subsequently an important municipium on the Via Traiana with temples, baths and an amphitheatre. Canosa has suffered extensive damage from earthquakes over the centuries and from bombing during the Second World War but the seventh century crypt of the Cathedral of San Sabino which contained the saint and first bishop’s remains escaped, as did the mausoleum of Bohemond and the pulpit built by Acceptus. Other important sites include the Roman/Medieval bridge over which ran the Via Triaina, the Daunian Hypogeum of Lagrasta and the Basilica of San Leucio – a pagan temple dedicated to Minerva, transformed into a Christian church.

  Casarano

  A hamlet founded in Roman times. Ninth century incursions by the Saracens forced the inhabitants to flee to a low hill to the north. This new settlement became the town of Casarano and in the thirteenth century, after the defeat of Manfred, was given to the Tomacelli and the Filomarino families, supporters of the Angevines. In the original settlement Santa Maria della Croce (or Casaranello) is one of the most beautiful early churches in Apulia with mosaics dating from the fifth century and frescoes from the eleventh.

  Cerignola

  The area around present day Cerignola was inhabited since at least the Bronze Age and reached the height of its prosperity in the fourth century BC. It was destroyed by Alexander I of Epirus during the Greco-Roman War but recovered, and in Roman Imperial times, being on the Via Traiana and the centre of the wheat growing Tavoliere, it thrived; the Piano delle Fosse on the edge of the town has the only remaining ancient pits for grain storage in Apulia. After the usual incursions of Goths, Lombards and Saracens it slowly regained its prosperity, although described in the thirteenth century as “a walled city with a moated fortress and few inhabitants”. In the following century it was destroyed in the war between Giovanna I and Louis I of Hungary. Under the Aragonese it prospered but went through a bad period with the Spanish and continued to do so until the devastating earthquake of 1731 which destroyed most of the city. The thirteenth century Chiesa Matrice and former cathedral survived and has an interesting roof with six hexagonal cupulas. The town was rebuilt at the end of the eighteenth century and increased in size enormously during the nineteenth. .The Teatro Mercadante dates from this period, as does the new cathedral – the home for half the year of the Byzantine icon of the Madonna di Ripalta (the other six months being spent at the Santuario della Madonna di Ripalta to the south of the city near the River Òfanto. This was built on the site of a temple dedicated to the Roman goddess Bona Dea). Cerignola is one of the few Apulian cities to be built on the exact site of the Roman municipium and it is sad that very little remains of the old city, but it is now one of the main agricultural centres in Apulia, famous for its olives.

  Conversano

  Founded by the Iapigi in the eighth century BC and surrounded by walls, Norba had a large sixth century necropolis in which many tombs have been found with Greek vases. In 268 BC it came under Rome and was an important city on the junction of the Via Appia and the Via Minucia Traiana, trading with the indigenous population of the interior and the Greeks on the coast. It was destroyed by the Visigoth Alaric in 411 AD but was quickly re-populated during the Byzantine and Lombard eras but with a new name – Casale Cupersanem. Geoffrey of Hauteville created the county of Cupersani which stretched from Bari to Lecce and in 1054 built the Norman Castle which has undergone considerable modification, particularly in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries (It now contains the 10 paintings by Finoglio of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata). Robert Curthose, son of William the Conqueror, stayed here on his way back from the First Crusade and married Sibilla of Conversano. The Romanesque Cathedral suffered greatly from a fire in 1911 but the thirteenth century façade is still beautiful. Outside the town are the early thirteenth century church of Santa Caterina and the church of Santi Cosma and Damiano.

  Copertino

  A paleochristian crypt under the castle chapel is the earliest evi-dence of a settlement. Copertino was a hamlet when the inhabit-ants of neighbouring villages destroyed by the Saracens in the ninth century fled to the area. Under the Byzantines it increased in size but was not walled until after the death of Frederick II who had built a fortified tower here. This was incorporated into the Ange-vin castle which in turn was rebuilt in 1540 to form what is now one of the largest in Apulia. A county under the Enghiens, in the fourteenth century it was given to Caterina, daughter of Mary of Enghien, Countess of Lecce and Copertino, on her m
arriage to Tristan Chiaromonte. Tristan’s daughter Isabella, heiress to the Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, who was born in the castle, married the Aragonese King Ferdinand I of Naples. It was given in fee to the Castriota Granai but after the disappearence of the last male Castriota, Antonio, it passed to the Viceregent of Spain. At the end of the sixteenth century the city flourished and many palaces were built, for the first time outside the walls. On the edge of the town is the Santuario della Grotella, built in 1577 over a rupestrian church, where San Giuseppe da Copertino flew on numerous occasions. The fresco of the Madonna over the main altar was cut from the Byzantine church. Another rupestrian church is the Cripta di S.Michele Arcangelo which lies outside the town.

  Fasano

  When the ruins of Egnathia – Horace’s last stop on the Via Appia – were abandoned after the fall of the Roman Empire of the West the inhabitants sought refuge in the grottoes inland from the coast, forming rupestrian villages with churches such as Cripta di San Lorenzo and Cripta di San Procopio. After the country was no longer harassed by Saracen raids the inhabitants built the town of Fasano which, from the fourteenth century, belonged to the Knights of Malta whose crest is on several buildings including what is now the Palazzo Communale. An interesting church outside the town is the ninth century Tempio Seppannibale, a small church with a dome whose design is thought to have been influenced by Saracen architecture.

  Foggia

  Owing to the fertility of the soil of the Tavoliere, from 6000 BC the area round Foggia was the largest neolithic village in Europe, the centre of primitive western agriculture. By 2000 BC the site had become the one of the largest and most prosperous Iapigian cities – Arpi, 8 km from modern Foggia. Under Roman rule and because of its distance from both the Via Appia and later the Via Traiana it became a backwater and the land uncultivated, swampy and malarial. It was not until the arrival of Robert Guiscard that the building, in a very limited way, of the present city of Foggia was begun. William the Good began to restore the land and to accelerate the building of Foggia, including the cathedral which houses the Byzantine Icona Vetere. The cathedral was altered in the baroque period and again after the earthquake of 1731. Frederick II loved Foggia and in 1223 built a large palace in what is now the Via Arpi. This was almost completely demolished by Papal troops after his death in 1250 but a small portion of it now houses the Museo Civico and there are several interesting palazzi on the site such as the sixteenth century Palazzo de Vita de Luca, which survived the devastating earthquake of 1731, and the eighteenth century Palazzo Del Vento. Frederick also built another palace outside the city, the Palacium dell’ Incoronata, near the modern Santuario della Madonna dell’ Incoronata.

  Other survivors of the earthquake are the fifteenth century Palazzo della Dogana, the customs’ house for the sheep arriving from the Abruzzi, and the baroque Chiesa delle Croci (aka the Calvario) built on the spot where the tratturi from Aquila and Celano met at Foggia.

  Francavilla Fontana

  The area has been inhabited since the Middle Neolithic era and expanded in the Messapic period although it was only a group of farms around Oria until Philip of Anjou founded it round the site of the fountain. Philip gave it in fee to the Antoglietta who built the walls. Subsequent feudatories were Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo who strengthened the walls and built the castle as a barracks and the Imperiali who built the Palazzo Imperiali. The Parish church (Chiesa Matrice) was built on the site of an Angevine predecessor after the earthquake of 1743. Amongst the finest palaces is the early eighteenth century Palazzo Giannuzzi Carissimo.

  Galatina

  The origins of Galatina are rather vague but it was probably a Messapian and then a Greek city. It is certain that in 1178 it was known as San Pietro in Galatina (the name it retained until 1861) because St Peter was supposed to have visited it on his way from Antioch to Rome. Outside the town are several basilian crypts of which Santa Maria della Grotta has the most interesting frescoes. Raimondello Orsini del Balzo began the construction of the Basilica di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria in 1369 as a votive offering for his safe return with a relic of St Catherine from a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai. His family lost Galatina to Giovanni Castriota Skanderbeg for services rendered to the Aragonese King of Naples, Ferrante. The Castriota built the walls with five gates (three of which still remain – Porta Nuova, Porta Luce and Porta Cappuccini) and a castle, which no longer exists. From the Castriota the city passed by marriage to the Sanseverino and then in 1615, in payment of a debt, to the Genoese bankers Spinola. From this period the city expanded considerably with many fine palaces and churches, among them the Baroque church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, rebuilt from 1633 on a previous Greek-rite edifice, the octagonal Chiesa delle Anime Sante del Purgatorio with an unusually plain exterior but a very exuberant interior and Chiesa di Santa Maria della Grazia, the last resting place of Maria Castriota, her sister-in-law Adriana Acquaviva and Nicolò Berardino Sanseverino. Galatina’s calm and prosperous existence was shattered in April 1903 when, during a peasants’ revolt against the latifondisti, the police were called to quell the disturbance leaving two dead and thirty wounded.

  Gallipoli

  The site of Gallipoli was probably the port for the Messapian Alezio. When Alezio was destroyed Gallipoli was enlarged and became a city with an easily defended site and, as in other ports such as Bisceglie, very narrow streets which did not allow an invader room to fight. It became part of Magna Graecia with territory stretching as far as Porto Cesareo. Gallipoli fought with Tàranto and Pyrrhus against Rome but was defeated and became a Roman colony and municipium. Sacked by the Vandals and the Goths it was rebuilt by the Byzantines and enjoyed a period of prosperity. Then came the Normans and later the Angevines, against whom the citizens revolted. When Charles of Anjou besieged the city the inhabitants fled to Alezio, returning only in 1300 when the city was walled. The Spanish rebuilt the walls and the castle and founded the Baroque cathedral on the site of a Byzantine church. Gallipoli flourished under the Borbone and became the most important port trading in lamp oil in the Mediterranean.

  Gioia del Colle

  The actual site of Gioia del Colle grew up round a Byzantine castle and was enlarged by the Normans, only to be destroyed by William the Bad. On his return from the Crusades in 1230 Frederick II rebuilt the city and the castle, part of which he used as a hunting lodge, the greater part being used as a barracks for the soldiers guarding the fertile countryside. Bianca Lancia, Frederick’s mistress by whom he had three children, was incarcerated here on suspicion of treason. The Angevines completed the castle which under the ownership of the Aquaviva d’Aragona lost its fortifications. In the twentieth century it became the property of the Marchese di Noci who organised its restoration and gave it to the Town Council. It now houses the Archeological museum and is used for exhibitions. About 5 km from the town lies the most important of all the Peucetian settlements – Monte Sanacce. Inhabited from prehistoric times it flourished from the sixth till the fourth centuries BC . It was surrounded by five rows of walls and in the fifth century the streets were built on a Greek plan. Corinthian and Attic vases of the seventh and sixth century have been found in the tombs, as well as local wares. When the Romans conquered Apulia Monte Sanacce was abandoned.

  Giovinazzo

  The Roman Natolium was built on the ruins of the Peucetian Netium destroyed during the Punic Wars. Until the arrival of the Normans it was no more than a small fishing port but later became a commercial centre trading with the Venetian ports of Dalmatia. The cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta (twelfth to thirteenth century), has a baroque interior over the original crypt. The port is one of the prettiest in Puglia and is a popular background for wedding photographs.

  Giurdignano

  The human presence in the area of Giurdignano dates to as early as the Bronze Age, as testified by the presence of twenty-five menhirs and dolmens. Later it was conquered by the Romans (archaeological findings include a second to third century AD ne
cropolis). In the ninth century Basilian monks built the rupestrian Cripta di S.Salvatore which has frescoes dating from the twelfth century. 251

  Gravina in Puglia

  Thanks to its stragegic position the story of Gravina has an extremely ancient history; the territory was inhabited continuously from at least the seventh century BC, as is seen in the settlement of Botromagno, and, in the Dark Ages, the paleochristian churches of San Paolo and Santo Stefano e Santo Staso. It came under the influence of Tàranto and was then occupied by Rome and became a staging post on the Via Appia but was destroyed by the Vandal Genseric. The citizens took refuge in the gravina and later built their city on the opposite side of the ravine. The cathedral was begun in 1092 by the Normans but destroyed by fires and earthquakes in the mid-fifteenth century. (Fortunately the most precious relic, an arm of St Thomas à Becket obtained by Bishop Roberto in 1179, has survived). Rebuilt later in the century, it is now closed for restoration. Outside the town is the ruin of Frederick II’s castle, a hunting box used for falconery. The most unusual church is the early seventeenth century Madonna delle Grazie whose façade is almost covered by an enormous carved eagle, the crest of the founder Monsignor Giustiniani, in whose memory the eagle was added in 1704.

  Grottaglie

  A city on the edge of the Murge, Grottaglie grew up round a rupestrian settlement – the Lama Fullonese – inhabited by local peasants and fugitives from Gothic raids who, in the seventh century had built the church of Saints Peter and Paul (later called St Peter of the Jews). These were joined by a group of Jews fleeing from the Saracen sack of Oria. In the fifteenth century Grottaglie was fortified and given the castle and Parish Church. The most important sights in the city are the monastery of San Francesco di Paola and the Chiesa del Carmine with a wonderful Nativity by Stefano di Putignano. In the seventeenth century it suffered under the Spanish but the ceramics industry, which is now famous, was started under their rule.