Barletta has a healthy mix of tourist attractions, fine stretches of beach, and historical architecture making it a great place to visit.
Barletta is a city, comune of Apulia, in south eastern Italy. Barletta is the capoluogo, together with Andria and Trani, of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It has a population of around 94,700 citizens. Barletta is part of a capoluogo (administrative district) together with the smaller cities of Andria, Trani and Apulia. Located in the south-eastern region of Italy, this commune sits directly on the coast facing the Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Manfredonia.
HIGLIGHTS
The city’s territory belongs to the Valle dell’Ofanto, indeed, the Ofanto river crosses the countryside and forms the border between the territory of Barletta and that of Margherita di Savoia. The mouth of the river is in the territory of Barletta.
The area of Barletta also includes part of the battlefield of Cannae. This is a very important archeological site, remembered for the major battle in 216 B.C. between the Romans and the Carthaginians, won by Hannibal. The site has been recognisied as Città d’Arte (city of art) of Apulia in the 2005 for the beautiful architecture. Cannae flourished in the Roman period and then after a series of debilitating Saracen attacks, was finally destroyed by the Normans and then abandoned in the early Middle Ages.
Barletta is home to the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze statue, representing a Roman Emperor (perhaps Theodosius II). This statue, called “Eraclio” by the inhabitants of Barletta, is about 4 metres (13 feet) tall, and remains the biggest statue that survives from the late Roman Empire (i.e. the Roman Empire after Constantine). According to a local folk story, Eraclio saved the city from a Saracen attack. Seeing the Saracen ships approaching Barletta’s coast, Eraclio waited for them on the sea shore. Here Eraclio acted as if he was crying so the Saracens asked him why he was sad and Eraclio answered that he was sad because he was the smallest among Barletta’s inhabitants and so everybody made fun of him. The Saracens thought that Barletta’s inhabitants were all giants so left the coast, fearing to face them.
In 1503 Barletta was the location of the disfida di Barletta (“Joust of Barletta”), a battle during which 13 Italian knights commanded by Ettore Fieramosca challenged and defeated an equal number of French knights who were at the time prisoners of war, in a joust held near Andria.[3] This episode was documented in 1833 by Massimo d’Azeglio, who wrote the novel “Ettore Fieramosca o la Disfida di Barletta”. In the book the author regards this episode as one of the earliest manifestations of Italian national pride.
The city at the time was fairly loosely besieged by French forces, and occupied by a Spanish army under the command of Gonzalo de Cordoba the ‘Gran Capitan’.
Barletta has one gold medal for military valour and another one for civil valour, for its resistance to an incursion of German Fallschirmjäger who destroyed the port in order to prevent its falling intact into the hands of the advancing British Eighth Army during World War II.
Barletta also has the tragic reputation of being the location where the last 2 Protestants were burned alive at the stake in 1866 as a result of the Roman Inquisition which began in Italy in 1542.
Main sights
The principal monuments of the city are:View of the Fortress with its gardens
- The Castle, a structure initially erected in the 10th century by the Normans as a typical motte and bailey structure. During the Crusade period, it was a used as a hostel for soldiers leaving for the Holy Land. It was upgraded and enlarged substantially under the reign of Frederick II between 1225 and 1228. This corresponds to the period in which he launched a crusade from here, the Sixth Crusade. The castle was later expanded under the House of Anjou, when Barletta became an important centre of Aragonese-Spanish control in the area, in 1527. Charles had the building expanded again and the four massive bastions added to create the present fortress form. In 1915 the fortress, then in use as a barracks and military store, was bombarded by the Austro-Hungarian scout cruiser SMS Helgoland. In September 1943 it was the setting of an Italian military defence unit against a German army.
- Colossus of Barletta: a large bronze statue of a Roman Emperor.
- Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre (Basilica of San Sepolcro): adjacent to Colossus, this church was built in the 12th-century and the former headquarters outside the city walls of the Knights of Malta, it stood next to a hospital for pilgrims (now demolished) to the Holy Land during the medieval period, a Romanesque church with particular Oriental influences from Jerusalem. The façade represents the Baroque style.
- Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore: erected on the former site of the temple of Neptune, is an example of the fusion of Gothic and Roman styles. In its interior, at a lower level, are grotticella tombs from the 3rd century BC, over which is the Palaeo-Christian basilica (6th century AD) with another basilica being added to that in the 9th century. In the 12th century a new building was erected in Romanesque style, being consecrated in 1267; this was renovated in the Gothic style in the 14th century
- San Giacomo: 11th-century church named after St James the Great (‘Matamoros’ or Saracen-slayer), was erected on the site of what had been the temple of Isis in Roman times. Toppled by the earthquake that nearly razed Barletta, it was soon rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1751.
- The Cellar of the Challenge, a former prison for galley slaves.
- Palace of the Marra: Baroque palace outside Salento, now housing the Pinacoteca Giuseppe De Nittis.
- Canne della Battaglia: archeologic site, location of the Battle of Cannae.
Mayor of the Municipality of Barletta
dott. Cosimo Damiano CANNITO
His office is located in the Palazzo di Città
Via Vittorio Emanuele, 94
76121 – BARLETTA
Tel. (+39) 0883578417 (Secretarial Office)
Fax (+39) 0883332505
