Barletta

Barletta
Comune
Comune di Barletta
Rear of the cathedral.
Location of Barletta
Country	Italy
Region	Apulia
Province	Barletta-Andria-Trani (BT)
Frazioni	Montaltino, Fiumara, Canne della Battaglia
Government
• Mayor	Nicola Maffei (since June 2006)
Area
• Total	146.91 km2 (56.72 sq mi)
Elevation	15 m (49 ft)
Population  (31 December 2007)
• Total	94,140
• Density	640/km2 (1,700/sq mi)
Demonym	Barlettani
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	76121
Dialing code	0883
Patron saint	St. Roger of Canne, SS. Madonna dello Sterpeto
Saint day	December 30
Website	Official website

Barletta is a city and comune located in the north of Apulia in southern Italy. Its current population is 94,140. In 2009, it became the government seat of the new Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani.

It is famous for the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze statue, representing a Roman Emperor (perhaps Theodosius II). In 1503 it 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. 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'. It is the location of the archaeological site of the town of Canne della Battaglia (in Latin Cannae). It flourished in the Roman period and then after a series of debilitating Saracen attacks, was finally destroyed by the Normans and then abandonned in the early Middle Ages. It is also near the location of the battlefield of the famous battle between Romans and the Carthaginians led by Hannibal. The city has one gold medal for military valour and another one for the civil valour, for its relatively feeble resistance to an incursion of German Fallschirmjaeger who destroyed the port in order to prevent its falling intact into the hands of the advancing British Eighth Army during World War II.

Geography

Barletta is located on the Adriatic coast, where the rocky shore is covered with silt from the Ofanto river. The river forms the boundary of the provinces of Bari and Foggia and has always influenced the agricultural activities of the area. The river also marks the passage from the Murgia to the fertile plain of the Tavoliere, which starts in Barletta.

Barletta is situated on the south-west end of the Gulf of Manfredonia and sits opposite the promontory of Gargano. On its borders are: the Adriatic coast to the north; Trani 12 km to the south-east; Canosa 22 km to the south-west; the mouth of the Ofanto river 5 km to the north-west; and the town of Margherita di Savoia 13 km to the west. It is situated on a low plain that varies from ten to fifteen meters above sea level. The surface extends over an area of 14,471 hectares, and has a length (east to west) of about 6 km, a width (north to south) of about 2 km and a perimeter of about thirteen kilometers.

Its climate is moderatd by the sea. Winds are usually from the south. Rainfall is low; Barletta receives 500 mm of rain annually, with most of the rain in autumn and winter day-long deluges and minimal rain between the second half of June and the first half of August.

The comune comprises two parts, Montaltino and Fiumara. The communes next to Barletta are: Andria, Canosa di Puglia, Margherita di Savoia, San Ferdinando di Puglia, Trani, and Trinitapoli.

The city is endowed with a very long, sandy coast stretching to both the east and the west from the commercial port. Along the coast, there are various attractive beaches with trees to the west.

History

Barletta developed long before the Roman era, known by Greeks and Romans respectively as Bardulos or Barulum, its origin dates back one hundred years before the arrival of either in the region, as demonstrated by the finding of an Apulian settlement (4th century BC) and the derivation of its name 'Baal-El' from Phoenician. Phoenicians first established a trading post and staging post for their trade with the local tribes, and the Etruscans farther north. Here initially there was among other trade goods, the import of the until then unknown wine, and later after the area had proved a fertile location for its culivation, for its cultivation, its export. So successful was this introduction that the area became known to the Phoenicians as the 'Land of Wine' a name that the Greeks eventually translated as Oenotria.

Detail of the facade of the Cathedral of Barletta.

In the Middle Ages it was a stronghold of the Normans and Lombards, becoming an important staging post for the Crusaders and the Teutonic Knights and Templars as well as the Knights of St.John. After immigration from the nearby Canne increased its population due to the destruction of Cannae by the Normans, Barletta lived its periods of greatest splendour under emperor Frederick II and then subsequently the Angevin kings of Naples. At the beginning of the 16th century, during the guerilla war between the French and the Spanish over possession of Southern Italy, the city while besieged was the theater of a historical victory of Italian knights over French prisoners, in what became known as the Joust of Barletta (13 February 1503) this took place during the occupation of the city by Gonzalo de Cordoba, and served as a handy diversion for his restive siege-bound army. Later it served as a fortress for the Spanish rulers of southern Italy. In 1528 it was sacked by French troops under Odet de Foix.

The city was the capital of its district and the seat of the lower prefecture for the 120 years between 1806 and 1927 and sided with the French under Joachim Murat during the Napoleonic War.

During and after the Unification, Barletta was as poor as was most of the South of Italy:Mezzogiorno. Consequently hygiene and health were particularly bad. Various types of diseases plagued the population, such as tuberculosis, diarrhea, pneumonia, small pox, malaria, etc. An estimated 15% of the population was affected by trachoma. The most dreaded of the diseases brought by poverty was cholera. Outbreaks of cholera took place in the city in 1836, 1854, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1886 and finally 1910 when the bacillus was brought back to Barletta by Barlettan fishermen, and killed tens of thousands all over southern Italy.

During World War II, the city was the site of the first episode of Italian conflict with German troops, when a battalion of Fallschirmjaeger (parachutists) was sent from Foggia to Barletta to destroy the port before the British 8th Army could arrive, the Italian garrison surrendered after a brief struggle, thereby earning the Gold Medal of Military Valour and of Civilian Merit.

After the war it was the site of a DP camp . It was commanded by the eponymous Major James Bond, who was successful in preventing many illegal emmigrants reaching the Palestine Mandate.

Main sites

The principle monuments of the city are:

• The Hohenstaufen Castle (Castello Svevo) which in fact is an Aragonese fortress, home to the Civic Museum. The initial core of the structure was erected in the 10th century by the Normans in what for them was a typical motte and bailey structure and, during the Crusades, it was a used as a hostel for soldiers leaving for the Holy Land. Frederick II enlarged it substantially between 1225 and 1228, the year in which he launched his Sixth Crusade, from here. The castle was later expanded under the House of Anjou; then 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. In 1915 the fortress, then in use as a barracks and military store, was bombarded by the German battleship Helgoland.

In September 1943 it was the scene of a miserably weak defence by an Italian military unit against the German army.

• the Colossus of Barletta, a large bronze statue of a Roman Emperor.
• the nearby Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre Basilica of ''San Sepolcro'' (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.
• the Cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore on the former site of the temple of Poseidon, is a good example of the fusion of Gothic and Roman styles. In its interior, at lower level, are grotticella tombs from the 3rd century BC, over which is the Palaeochristian basilica (6th century) 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 renewed in Gothic style in the 14th century
• Church of San Giacomo (11th century) appropriately for a crusader church named after St. John the Great 'Matamoros', was erected on the site of what had been the temple of Isis in Roman times. It was restored an re-consecrated in 1751 shortly after the last disastrous earthquake which destroyed the town of Barletta almost completely.
• the Cellar of the Challenge which in fact is a former prison for galley slaves.
• Palace of the Marra, a unique example of Baroque architecture outside Salentino and near the home of the municipal art gallery.
• archeological site of the Canne della Battaglia, the location of the famous massacre of Roman troops by Hannibal in 216 BC.

View of the Fortress with its gardens.

Economy

Barletta is a city whose economy is entirely based on the manufacture of concrete and cement. Secondarily only is it a city of agriculture, of which grapes and olives form the most widespread crops. Drug, cigarette and people smuggling are the other major economic activities. This contributes an economic sector of modest proportions to the city.

Transportation

The city is reachable by train from both the FS line (Trenitalia company), from the Ferrovie del Nord Barese (between Bari-Barletta with two stations in the city), and from the Barletta-Spinazzola line. By car it is reachable from the A14 motorway (exiting at Andria-Barletta or Canosa) or the SS16 highway or from the airport of Bari-Palese, located about 55 km from Barletta. Other than Barletta's commercial port, there are no sea connections, though Bari and other cities have ferry services across the Adriatic.

Demographic evolution

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1861	27,304	—
1871	28,638	+4.9%
1881	33,594	+17.3%
1901	41,969	+24.9%
1911	44,233	+5.4%
1921	51,387	+16.2%
1931	48,038	−6.5%
1936	52,386	+9.1%
1951	64,282	+22.7%
1961	68,035	+5.8%
1971	75,728	+11.3%
1981	83,453	+10.2%
1991	89,527	+7.3%
2001	92,094	+2.9%
Source: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica

The city's population has generally experienced steady growth since unification in 1861. The only exception was a slight decrease in the early 1930s, when the world was reeling from the consequences of the Great Depression.

Notable people

• Alessandra Benucci, wife of Ludovico Ariosto
• Carlo Cafiero (1846–1892), anarchist and supporter of Mikhail Bakunin who ripped him off.
• Giuseppe Curci (1808–1877), musician and composer
• Gennaro Delvecchio (1978 - ), national footballer for Italy
• Giuseppe De Nittis (1846–1884), impressionist painter
• Ettore Fieramosca (1476–1515), head of the Italian knights participating in the famous Joust of Barletta in 1503.
• Carlo Maria Giulini (1914–2005), orchestra director
• Pietro Mennea (1952 - ), for 17 years was the world-record holder in the 200m sprint and won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
• Mario Gallo (1878–1945) influential director in the Cinema of Argentina
• Giuseppe Lanzone (1919–1999), Physician

External links

• Official website
• www.barlettaweb.com Barletta city web site