Canosa

CANOSA. - City of Apulia, in the province of Bari, of ancient origin, known for its necropolises with rich grave goods and for notable remains of Roman buildings. Situated in a favorable position, on a road of great traffic, the Via Traiana, Christianity established itself there early, assuming a predominant place with respect to other centers of the region. It was thus one of the first episcopal sees of Apulia; already in 357, among the participants of the Council of Sardica, a Stercorius ab Apulia de Canusio is named (St. Hilary, Fragm., II, 632; PL 10, 643; cf. Gregory the Great, Ep., I, 51 and Ughelli, X, 35). Still in the 6th century C. is cited among the most important Apulian cities (Procopius, Bell. got., III, 18; Paul the Deacon, Hist. rom., II, 22), but it must then have suffered serious damage at the hands of the Lombards, if later, between 689 and 706, the duchess Theoderada, regent for her son Gisulf, re-established the bishopric there and built a church there dedicating it to St. Sabinus, patron of the city. To approximately the same age must be attributed the evident works of rebuilding of another large building, with a central plan within a square perimeter, unpublished, discovered and explored in 1937 at about 1 km. from the built-up area, in a locality called S. Angelo and later S. Leucio, perhaps in memory of two successive different dedications. In a sarcophagus a body was found, with a gilded cross on its chest.

On the outskirts of the city another Christian building had already been recognized, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, also with a central plan inscribed in a polygon, covered by a dome, with a narthex with opposed apses, which perhaps wrongly was considered a baptistery.

Worthy of note is the fact that in both buildings the masonry appears always jumbled, with extensive use of pre-existing material, in large unequal blocks, patched and leveled with fragments of brick or marble, against which stand out the arches always built with newly manufactured bipedales; a technique quite dissimilar from the Ravennate one, to be compared rather to that of the contemporary monuments of North Africa. C. having been destroyed once again by the Saracens around the middle of the 9th century, its bishop, Peter, would have taken refuge in Salerno and later, once the invaders had been driven out, the bishop Angelarius would have transported from the ruins of his city to Bari the relics of Sts. Rufinus, Memorus and Sabinus. But just as there are no certain data on these events, so the asserted existence of a bull of Pope Sergius II is not documented, by which, following this event, he would have united the diocese of C. to that of Bari, elevated to an archbishopric. Having risen again at last through the work of the Normans, C. returned to building the cathedral dedicated to St. Sabinus: Pope Paschal II inaugurated it in 1101. Noteworthy in it are the marble cathedra supported by two elephants, carved for the bishop Orso toward the end of the 11th century, and the pulpit, the work of Acceptus archidiconus. Next to the cathedral is the tomb of Bohemond (d. in 1111), with a beautiful bronze door, a hybrid of Byzantine and Arab art, signed by Rogerius Melfe Campanarum. It is certain that after the 11th century the diocese of C. is found united to that of Bari, recognized by Urban II as primate of Apulia, and there are no longer names of bishops solely of C. Even today the archbishop of Bari has united the title of C.

Renato Bartoccini