TOUR ITINERARIES
Baroque Ways
Lenght: 117 km

FOGGIA

This itinerary starts from Foggia, a chief town of the province of Puglia. This city is 76 mt high and it is between the wonderful Gargano promontory and the Subappennine area: this position makes Foggia and important road junction and the main railway centre of the Mezzogiorno area.

De Rosa Palace- (web)

AFoggia, like many towns in Puglia, can be considered a Baroque city and an example of this is the wonderful De Rosa Palace, with its peculiar and smart loggia on the first floor, or the stately cathedral consecrated to S.Maria Icona della Vetere. Among the most important momuments of the rich architectonic and artistic estate of Foggia, there is also Arpi Palace, whose name comes from the ancient and picturesque towm of Arpi, the biggest one in the Daunia region, and one of the most visited archaeologic sites of the region. Arpi Palace is in the lovely Arpi street, in the middle of the old town centre, and it was built for the will of Federico II of Svevia in 1223. It used to be an Imperial residence but now it has few elements left from the time of Federico II , like the main entrance archivolt, held by two hawks and made by the famous Bartolomeo da Foggia, and a plaque. Inside, there is the Municipal Museum, divided in three main areas: the picture-gallery, the archaeologic area and the lapidary.

SAN SEVERO

In the near town of S.Severo you can also an ancient place with peculiar ancient lanes and artistic and precious momuments, like, for example, the Municipal palace. You should also visit the churches, first of all the Carmine one.

Carmine church- (web)

BARLETTA

Barletta is a thickly-populated seaport of Puglia, 15 mt above the beautiful Adriatic sea level, with 89.527 inhabitants.Thanks to its railway and harbour remarkable equipment, economic activities pertaining agriculture, industry (textile, wine, chemical and so on) and tourism develop continuously.

Disfida (Challenge) Square

The castle has norman origins; it was built by the Svevians in 1234 and then fortified by Pierre d’Agincourt at the end of the XIII century and by the Aragoneses in the XIV cent. In the second half of the sixteenth century it was reinforced and surrounded by stately defence bastions.The castle is now being restored and inside there is a wide and comfortable squared yard from which, through a beautiful stair, you can get to the upper floors. Today it is the seat of the Municipal Museum. The Colosso, made of bronze, is a stately statue from the IV cent. that got to Barletta from Constantinopoli between ‘200 and ‘300 and it maybe portrays the Emperor Valentiniano I. The Disfida Square, built as an homage to the historic challenge in the old town centre, evokes the famous Challenge Cellar, the place where the quarrel between the French Captain Lamotte and Mr Fieramosca was declared. S.Maria Maggiore Cathedral, a model of Romanic art, was first built in 1140 by Simiacca and his son Luca di Barletta and it was then enlarged many times before being finished in the XIV century.This cathedral is one of the four Palatine basilicas of Puglia and it has a beautiful Reinassance portal with a lovely framed single lancet window.Inside it is divided in three naves, its apses were originally Romanic and then they were destroyed and replaced by the presbytery and other Gothic bays. The sacred furniture is very smart, expecially the pulpit from 1267 and the ciborium with its simple capitals.

Texts: Italiainrete - Pictures: Database and web

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