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Barletta
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BARLETTA
, nearly 60km round the coast from Manfredonia, is an indifferent and rather shabby town really, but meriting some attention if you happen to be passing on the second weekend in September, when it's the venue of one of Puglia's largest pageants, the
Disfida
("the Challenge"). The event re-enacts an occasion in 1503 when thirteen Italian knights challenged thirteen French knights to a duel for control of the besieged town. They had been drinking together and, following a brawl, the Italians won and the siege was lifted.
For the rest, Barletta's dowdy atmosphere says little about its former importance as a medieval Crusader port, the only relic of its earlier days a five-metre-high statue in the town centre known as the
Colosso
- said to be the largest Roman bronze in existence, and a relic from the Venetian sacking of Constantinople in 1204. Towering dourly over pedestrians on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, its identity is a mystery, although most money is on Valentinian I, one of the last Eastern Roman emperors. Over the way from here, the thirteenth-century
Basilica del Santo Sepolcro
has been restored to its original thirteenth-century simplicity. The only other place of any interest, is the
Castello
(Tues-Sun 8am-2pm & 4-7pm; L5000/a?¬2.58), which has a collection of antiques, coins and armour and is home to the
Galleria de Nittis
(same hours and ticket), with paintings by the nineteenth-century artist Giuseppe de Nittis, a local lad who spent most of his short but prolific life in Paris, painting under the influence of the Impressionists. You can also visit the reconstructed
Cantina della Disfida
, where the original Challenge occurred, on Via Cialdini (same hours and ticket). Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Italy,
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