An Armchair Traveller's History of Apulia (41 page)

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 marriage 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.