An Armchair Traveller's History of Apulia (42 page)

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 necropolis). 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.

Lecce

Undoubtedly the most beautiful city in Apulia, which saw its architectural zenith in the seventeenth century when many of the monasteries, churches and palaces were built. Founded by Messapians who successfully repelled all advances from Tàranto it became the Roman Lupiae. During the reign of Hadrian the centre was moved three kilometres to the northeast and took the name Litium. The Via Traiana was extended to Lecce and its port at present day San Cataldo became the busiest in the Salento after Brìndisi while Lecce itself, by now with a theatre and amphitheatre, became the most important town. During the Dark Ages it was sacked by Totila but recovered for the Byzantines in 549 but did not flourish until the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century. The Normans built the
Chiesa dei Santi Niccolò e Cataldo
which, although considerably altered in the Baroque period, still retains its original portal. From the end of the fifteenth century during the reign of Ferrante d’Aragona it had commercial dealings with Florence, Venice, Genoa, Greece and Albania becoming one of the richest and most cultured cities of the Italian peninsula. Owing to Turkish incursions new walls and a castle were built under Charles V. From 1630 under Spanish rule a building frenzy created numerous religious institutions and palaces. However in 1656 the plague killed thousands of the inhabitants, only being brought to a halt by the intercession of Sant’ Oronzo who, from this time, became the city’s patron saint. The most outstanding ecclesiastical buildings are
Santa Croce
and the adjacent
Palazzo dei Celestini
, the
Cathedral
,
Sant’Irene dei Teatini
,
Basilica di San Giovanni Battista al Rosario
,
Chiesa del Carmine
,
Chiesa di San Matteo
and the
Cloister of the Dominicans
. Other interesting edifices are the gates of the city –
Porta Napoli
,
Porta Rudiae
and
Porta San Biagio
and the towers – the moated
Belloluogo Tower
where Maria d’Enghien spent the last years of her life and in which is a tiny chapel with frescoes of the life of Mary Magdalene, and the
Torre del Parco
where Maria D’Enghien’s son, Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo, kept his bears. The latter is now an hotel.

Lucera

According to Strabo Lucera was founded by Diomede King of Etolia who after the fall of Troy fled to Apulia and established himself and his followers nearby. In 314 BC it became an autonomous Roman colony. The
amphitheatre
was built in honour of Octavian who visited it on several occasions to watch fights between gladiators and wild beasts. During the first century AD one of the first Christian communities in Europe was founded, with St Peter, on his way to Rome, baptising them in the River Vulgano. The first bishop, Basso, was martyred under Trajan in 118. The Byzantine emperor Constans II sacked the Lombard city in 663 but in 743 the Lombards returned and rebuilt the cathedral. The Emperor Frederick II built the
castle
which was much enlarged by Charles I of Anjou. After the destruction of the city by Charles II of Anjou in 1300 he rebuilt it and renamed it “Civita Sancte Marie”. The demolished mosque became the
Cathedral
of the Assumption. Robert of Anjou re-populated it with colonists from Provence and the Pope sent the Croatian bishop Agostino Kazotic to convert the area. In 1323 the bishop was mortally wounded by a Muslim.

Manduria

An important Messapian city which fended off various attacks from Tàranto thanks to the three defensive walls encircling the city. The Spartan king Archidamus III lost his life beneath these walls in 338 BC. Manduria sided with Hannibal and for this thou-sands of its citizens were sold into slavery when the Romans took the city. After its destruction by the Saracens it remained uninhabited until it was re-founded in the thirteenth century but occupied only a small portion of the Messapian site. During the Middle Ages Manduria had an important Jewish community living in the
Ghetto
. Having been owned by various families it ended up in 1719 in the possession of the Imperiali di Francavilla, who held it until 1799, and built the fine
Palazzo Imperiali
. In the northeast of the city lies the
Archeological Park of the Messapian Walls
where the largest Messapian necropolis ever found has been excavated amounting to about 2500 tombs, as well as segments of the
three defensive walls
surrounding the ancient city. In the same area are
Pliny’s Fountain
and the church of
San Pietro Mandurino
– the latter founded in the eighth century by adapting a Messapian chamber tomb.

Manfredonia

Siponto was a Daunian settlement then a flourishing Greek port which, having been defeated by first the Samnites and then in 335 BC by Alexander I, King of Epirus, became in 189 BC a Roman colony. It was a bishop’s See as early as 465 and probably had been converted to Christianity following St Peter’s sojourn in Apulia on his way to Rome. The Byzantine Emperor Constans destroyed it in the process of returning the region to the Empire. It was occupied by the Saracens for several years in the ninth century. An earthquake and possibly a tsunami destroyed it in 1255 and Manfred established his new city of Manfredonia two kilometres away from the malarial swamps which had formed round the old site. Siponto is now a holiday resort but the Romanesque churches of
Santa Maria Maggiore
, whose Byzantine icon of the Virgin is now in the cathedral of Manfredonia, and
San Leonardo
are well worth visiting. In Manfredonia itself the Angevins rebuilt the
castle
and built the
cathedral
. During the fourteenth century the port became the most important in the Capitanata but by the fifteenth century the fortifications had to be strengthened owing to the Turkish threat. These were of no avail as in 1620 the Ottoman Ali Pasha with fifty-six galleys attacked Manfredonia and destroyed the medieval city. The only buildings that remained were the church of St Mark, the castle and the walls. The cathedral was rebuilt from 1624.

Martina Franca

Founded by fugitives from Tàranto escaping the Saracens it was recognised as a city in the fourteenth century. Martina Franca has a very attractive old part filled with baroque palaces and churches; the
town hall
with murals by Carella (at the moment being restored) is well worth seeing, as is the
Church of San Martino
with its simple Nativity by
Stefano di Putignano
.

Massafra

The most northern of Messapian centres, it came under Greece and then it is thought was given to North African fugitives fleeing from the Vandals. They sought help from the archbishop of Tàranto, who gave them land between the two ravines where they lived in the grottoes. The first documentary evidence is from the tenth century when the Lombards appointed a local administrator.

Under the Normans it was given to Robert Guiscard’s nephew Richard the Seneshal, who restored the castle. The Angevins took back Massafra from Oddone di Soliac in 1296 and joined it with the Principality of Tàranto. In the fifteenth century it became a free city and a centre for horse breeding. Later it again became a fief and was given to the Pappacoda family from Naples then to the Imperiali who owned it from 1661 until 1778 and planted olives, vines and fruit trees on their land, modernised the castle and built the clock tower. Apart from the castle and the
Convento di San Benedetto
there is little of note in the upper town – the ravines are the reason to visit Massafra. The churches which still have frescoes are
Chiesa di Santa Lucia
;
Chiesa della Candelora
;
Chiesa della Madonna della Buona Nuova
(part of the
Chiesa della Santa Maria della Scala
);
Chiesa di Sant’ Antonio Abate
;
Chiesa di San Simine in Pantaleo
;
Chiesa di San Simeone a Famosa
and
Chiesa della Santa Marina
.

Matera (now in Basilicata)

Like all the cities which grew up round ravines Matera was inhabited in the Neolithic era. The city itself probably has Greek origins, settled by the inhabitants of Metaponto fleeing from Hannibal. It suffered the usual depredations from Goths, Lombards and Saracens and was sacked by the troops of Emperor Louis II while they were trying to exterminate the latter. At the beginning of the eighth century it saw the emigration of basilian monks from the Eastern Empire who established themselves in the caves of the ravines and carved out churches in the
Sassi
. From 1043, with the arrival of the Normans, the city enjoyed a long period of stability during which Frederick II founded the cathedral which was completed in 1270. As well as the rupestrian churches, two others are worthy of note – the
Chiesa del Purgatorio
and the
Convento di Sant’Agostino
. The most important churches of the
Sassi
are
Santa Lucia alle Malve
,
Convicinio di Sant’ Antonio
,
Santa Maria di Idris
,
Madonna delle Virtù
,
San Pietro Barisano
and
Santa Maria della Valle
. Further afield the
Cripta del Peccato Originale
has Lombard frescoes.