An Armchair Traveller's History of Apulia (43 page)

Melfi (now in Basilicata)

The first record of Melfi comes in the eleventh century when Basil Boiannes was
catapan
but the site was occupied in at least the Bronze Age. With the Roman conquest of the area it seems the inhabitants were sent to the new colony of Venusia. Its period of greatness came with the Normans who made it their headquarters in the conquest of Puglia. Robert Guiscard married Sichelgaita of Salerno in Melfi. In 1059 Pope Nicholas II at the First Council of Melfi made Robert Duke of Puglia and Calabria and a vassal of the Holy See. Frederick II spent a great deal of time in Melfi owing to the good hunting in the area. His Constitutions were set out here and in 1241 he imprisoned two cardinals and numerous French and German bishops who had attended a Council called by the Pope with the object of deposing him. The Angevines greatly enlarged the castle to control the surrounding population who were supporters of the Hohenstaufen and loathed the French.

In 1531 the Aragonese King Carlos V who was short of money after the Thirty Years’ War removed the Caracciolo family from the Principality of Melfi and sold Melfi to the Genoese Andria Doria for 25,000 ducats. It then went into steady decline, not helped by earthquakes – the last in 1930 destroying much of the city – and, after the Unification of Italy, the presence of brigands including the notorious Carmine Donatello Crocco. The
castle
now houses the archeological museum, and the
Cathedral
and the eighteenth century
Bishop’s Palace
have been restored. The walls which in Norman times were four kilometres in circumference have mostly been destroyed by earthquakes but small stretches remain as well as the
Venosa Gate
. Outside the city are two rupestrian churches with frescoes –
Santa Margherita
and
Santa Lucia
; the former is particularly interesting as one of the frescoes shows Frederick II holding a hawk with his wife, Isabella of England, and his son Corrado on his right, and on his left three skeletons. An interesting church historically is the
Chiesa di Santa Maria ad Nives
which was built in 1570 by the Albanian Giorgino Lapazzaia. It still retains the arbëreshë rite which is basically Greek Orthodox and serves a community who speak a dialect of Albanian going back to the sixteenth century. Melfi is a pleasant place with lovely views of Monte Vulture.

Monopoli

The area immediately around has been inhabited for the last 80,000 years but the city itself was founded by the Messapians in about 500 BC. They walled the city and built a fortress. In the Roman era the port was used primarily for military purposes. After Gothic and Saracen raids the people of Egnathia fled to Monopoli which was then taken by the Byzantines. In 1041 the inhabitants called in the Normans and resisted all efforts by the Byzantine general George Maniaces to retake it; in retribution he laid waste to all the surrounding territory. The medieval city was laid out by the Normans on the peninsula between the two natural harbours. It was during their rule that the famous icon of the
Madonna della Madia
(now in the
cathedral
) is alleged to have arrived on a raft with a consignment of wooden beams required for the roof of the new church. This church had been superimposed on an earlier one, which in its turn had been erected on the site of a pagan temple. In 1742 it was decided to enlarge the building, which had been already altered in the sixteenth century, and the present cathedral was built – a fine example of late eighteenth century Baroque. In a room up a flight of stairs from the vestry is a fascinating collection of ex-voto paintings. There are several rupestrian churches in and around the city including the crypt of
Chiesa di Santa Maria Amalfitana
,
Madonna del Soccorso
and
San Leonardo
. During the long minority of Frederick II the barons in Puglia rebelled but Monopoli remained loyal to the emperor. The walls were damaged but re-stored and strengthened by Frederick when he was older, thanks to which the city was never attacked by the Turks. They also withstood a three month siege by the Spaniard Alfonso d’Avalos during the struggle for Puglia between the Venetians and the Spanish in 1529. After the armistice Monopoli belonged to Charles V. The castle, superimposed on the Messapian walls and the Roman gate to the port, was built in the sixteenth century under the hated Spanish rule. The city went into a decline from this period and in July 1647 during a popular rising the governor was lynched, followed by reprisals by troops stationed at Bari.

Monte Sant’ Angelo

Under the Lombards the city grew up around the
Sanctuary of St Michael
(still a place of pilgrimage), and was enlarged by the Normans who founded the
Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore
, and the
Tomba di Rotari
– in reality a baptistery. Charles of Anjou erected the building now housing the sanctuary and the elegant
campanile
over the grotto. The
castle
was built by Orso, bishop of Benevento in the ninth century but he could not prevent the sack of the city by the Saracens in 871. Normans, Hohenstaufen, Angevins and the Aragonese enlarged and strengthened it to withstand contemporary warfare.

Mottola

Although it was inhabited in the Bronze Age and remains of Greek walls have been discovered round the centre there is no documentary evidence for its existence until the beginning of the eleventh century when the
catapan
Basil Boioannes founded a castle here against the incursions of the Saracens. Under the Normans who attempted to stamp out the Greek rite, rupestrian churches were made in the ravines of Petruscio and Casalrotto by followers of the rite. These include
San Nicola
,
Sant’Angelo
,
San Gregorio
and
Santa Margherita
, all with frescoes – those of San Nicola some of the best in Apulia. During the Second World War Polish soldiers hid from the Germans in the
Villagio ipogeo di Petruscio
, an amazing settlement of underground dwellings and churches dating from early times. In 1653 the fee of Mottola was sold to Francesco Caracciolo VII, Duke of Martina Franca, who retained it until the end of feudalism in 1806.

Nardò

One of the most attractive and largest cities in the Salento, it is near the Ionian coast with the interesting series of watchtowers (six of which are in the parish) built by Charles V to defend Puglia from the Muslim pirates of North Africa and the Balkans. A Messapian settlement from the tenth century, it was frequently at war with Tàranto but joined them in the fight with Pyrrhus against Rome and was severely punished by the victorious Romans after the Social Wars. Under Augustus, the city, which had been abandoned for decades, was reinstated as Neritum; new roads were built to link it with the Via Appia and it flourished until the arrival of the Goths. Taken by the Byzantines and Lombards it became a haven in the ninth century for basilian monks who built the Abbazia di Santa Maria di Nerito, now the very much altered
cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta
. After the city was conquered by the Normans in 1058 the abbey was handed to the Benedictines. Nardò was loyal to Frederick II in his battle with the Papacy, and to Manfred after his father’s death. The papal troops took the city but Manfred recaptured it with a force of Saracen mercenaries and returned it to his loyal vassal, Tommaso Gentile. It was then at-tacked by cities loyal to the Pope – Brìndisi, Mesagne and Òtranto – whereupon Manfred besieged and destroyed Brìndisi. Nardò was once again given back to Tommaso Gentile in 1255 but he died the following year, to be succeeded by his son. The next feudatory was Luigi Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, who governed well and created a renowned School of Studies, but he rebelled against Giovanna II and was deposed in favour of the Del Balzo Orsini. On the death of Giovanni Antonio in 1463 Nardò returned to the Crown but, after the Ottoman attacks in 1480 at Tàranto, Òtranto and Nardò, in 1497 the Aragonese King Federico I sold the city to the Acquaviva Counts of Conversano for 11,000 ducats. The new owners built the fine Baroque palaces, including the beautiful
Palazzo del Tribunale
, and the
Guglia
in the
Piazza Salandra
– and it remained in the family until the end of feudalism in 1806.

Ostuni

The site was inhabited since the Stone Age, became a town under the Messapians and was destroyed by Hannibal. Re-built by the Greeks it suffered the usual depredations of Goths and Saracens before being once more rebuilt under the Byzantines who made it a diocese. From 1294 to 1463 it was part of the Principality of Tàranto and from 1507 passed first to Isabella Sforza, Duchess of Bari and then to her daughter Bona. In 1639 it was sold by the Spanish King Phillip IV to the merchant family of Zevallos who taxed the inhabitants harshly and caused a decline in the population. Known as the White City on account of its whitewashed houses (to which it owed its immunity from the plagues of the seventeenth century) it revived under the Bourbons and expanded onto the neighbouring hills. The main sights of the old town are the fifteenth century
Cathedral
, the
Bishop’s palace
, the
Guglia di Sant’Oronzo
,
Chiesa di San Vito Martire
, and in the newer town the
Chiesa dell’Annunziata
, but there are also numerous palazzi in the old town making it one of the most attractive in Apulia. Outside the town is the church of Santa Maria la Nova, built in 1561 above a rupestrian church with traces of frescoes.

Òtranto

Òtranto was a town of Tarentine Greek origin which became a Roman municipium and an important port of embarkation for the east. The Via Traiana was extended to the city after the temprorary demise of Brìndisi. It remained part of the Byzantine empire – during which the
Church of San Pietro
was built – until it was among the last cities of Apulia to surrender to Robert Guiscard at the end of 1070. The
cathedral
was founded in 1080 and finished in the twelfth century, when the marvellous
mosaic floor
was laid. In the Middle Ages there was a large population of Jews who had a school there but these were expelled by the Aragonese. Òtranto was occupied from 12th August 1480 until 18th September 1481 by the Turks. After it was recovered by Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, the walls were strengthened and the castle rebuilt but it still suffered from attacks by Venetians and Turks, including being briefly taken by the notorious corsair Barbarossa. Today Òtranto is a popular place for day trippers but in the evening or early morning it is one of the most fascinating and attractive cities in the Salento.

Poggiardo/Vaste

The history of Poggiardo is that of most of the Salento south of Òtranto. Vaste was an important Messapian settlement from the seventh century BC, subsequently destroyed by Goths and Saracens, and finally by William the Bad who in 1147 razed it to the ground. The inhabitants moved to neighbouring Poggiardo which, from a small village, began to expand at the end of the fourteenth century after it had sided with Charles of Anjou against Manfred. A century later it became part of the Principality of Tàranto and was defended with walls and a castle. After the destruction of nearby Castro by the Turks it became the seat of the bishop. The fifteenth
bishop’s palace
was sold to the Guarini after a rising against the bishop in 1756 and was subsequently a prison and a tobacco factory. In the Piazza Episcopo is the
museum of frescoes
from the rupestrian church of
Santa Maria degli Angeli
. Between Poggiardo and modern Vaste lies the
Parco dei Guerrieri di Vaste
, an archeological area which includes the Messapian remains of Vaste and the
Cripta di Santi Stefani
whose frescoes are in a bad state of repair, the church having been used as a tobacco drying barn within living memory.

Putignano

An ancient Peucetian settlement it became a Roman municipium. In the early eleventh century the land belonged to the Benedictine monks of Monopoli and their labourers gathered to form a village on the old site. In the thirteenth century Frederick II built a fortified hunting lodge just outside the walls but because he had been excommunicated by the Pope on the advice of the monks, Putignano denied him access. In a rage he demolished the castle and partially destroyed the town walls. In 1317 the Pope gave Putignano to the Knights of Malta. Because of the increasing danger of Turkish raids the Byzantine icon and relics of St Stephen were brought from Monopoli and housed in a new church. The Putignano Carnival which is still held every year dates from the arrival of the icon. The walls were rebuilt in the fifteenth century by the Balì Carafa who also greatly enlarged the original church of
San Pietro
. Napoleon’s troops removed most of the church bells in Putignano and stole many church treasures.

Ruvo di Puglia

A flourishing Peucetian centre from the ninth century BC trading with Greece in ceramics, wine and oil, between the fifth and third centuries BC it was colonised by Greeks from Arcadia. By the fourth century BC its territory included modern Molfetta, Corato, Trani, Terlizzi and Bisceglie. A large collection of Apulian and Attic pottery from the extensive necropolis is in the
Museo Jatta
. A Roman municipium on the Via Traiana, with the rise of Molfetta, Trani and Bisceglie, it had lost a lot of its territory by the fifth century when it was sacked by the Goths and totally destroyed. The new city was surrounded by high walls with four gates and in the centre a tall tower, now the
campanile
of the wonderful
Romanesque cathedral
. During the reign of Roger II of Sicily the city rebelled and, having withstood a lengthy siege, was betrayed by one of the citizens and partially destroyed. It bounced back in the twelfth century, when the cathedral was founded, and flourished again. The walls were strengthened under the Angevins who built the castle on the site of Frederick II’s fortress but were destroyed once more in 1350, this time by Ruggiero Sanseverino. In 1503 the Duc de Namours billeted his men in Ruvo and sent out the thirteen Frenchmen who took part in the Disfida di Barletta. From 1510 Ruvo belonged to the Carafa family and during their rule and the arrival of the Dominican monks the city became enriched with churches, palaces and monasteries. When Napoleon’s troops arrived in 1799 the people of Ruvo flew the tricolore from the clock tower and planted a Tree of Liberty which was swiftly cut down when a rumour that the British Navy was about to bombard any city which had planted the tree – they seem to have had a strange idea of the fire power of the navy at the time, Ruvo being about twelve kilometres from the the coast. Ettore Carafa and Giovanni Jatta, although on opposing sides, managed to make Ruvo avoid the worst excesses of this violent period and after the Unification of Italy Ruvo once again flourished as a centre for olive oil and wine.