Apulia

APULIA. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - A historical region formed by the Adriatic slope of the Apennines southeast of the Fortore and by the Salento Peninsula.

Four distinct natural units come together there: the Tavoliere, a vast alluvial plain between the Ofanto, the Fortore and the Gargano, in which the original steppe populated by sheep flocks has been transformed into a granary; the Gargano, a protruding limestone massif, whose wooded slopes (M. Calvo, 1056 m) descend to the Adriatic in terraces, covered lower down with citrus groves (the Tavoliere and Gargano form the old Capitanata, or province of Foggia); the Murge (the "terra," or province of Bari), also a karstic plateau, interrupted by basins (dolines), and bounded on the east by a flat and fertile coastal strip; and the Salento Peninsula, which this plateau continues toward the south, between the Adriatic and the Ionian, likewise descending in steps to the sea and with weaker hilly undulations (the Serre).

Extremely poor in surface waters and with scarce average annual rainfall (less than 500 mm in the lower Tavoliere and on the Taranto coast), concentrated moreover in the autumn-winter period, the P. is a territory suited to grazing (Murge) and to agriculture, with a clear predominance, in the latter, of tree crops (olive and vine above all) over herbaceous ones (wheat; oats: 1/5 of national production; tobacco in the Salento Peninsula). The P. supplies about 1/3 of the oil produced in Italy, and holds first place on the national market for grapes and wine (quantity). Also notable is the production of dried fruit (almonds, figs), destined for the most part for export. Industries, for absolute lack of energy and mineral raw materials, are limited to food processing (oil, wine and milling); the exception is the mechanical industries concentrated in the military port of Taranto. Fishing and trade are active, favored by the great extent of coastline and railways.

The population, which grows at a very rapid rate (it was 1.3 million inhabitants in 1861), is variously distributed: maximum density on the Bari coast, minimum in the Tavoliere and Gargano. Characteristic is the strong concentration (93.3%, the highest value among Italian compartments) in large and small settlements; 77 municipalities exceed 20 thousand inhabitants, and of these two exceed 100 thousand (Bari, Taranto), six exceed 50 (Foggia, Barletta, Andria, Lecce, Brindisi and Molfetta) and thirteen exceed 30 (Cerignola, Corato, S. Severo, Bisceglie, Altamura, Trani, Martina Franca, Bitonto, Monopoli, Canosa, Ostuni and Manfredonia).

	Provinces	Area in sq km	Population Census 1936-1.1.1950 (in 1000 inhab.)	Density per sq km	Pop. of the capital (in 1000 inhab.)
Bari	5,129	987 1,166	227	270
Brindisi	1,838	253 307	167	61
Foggia	7,184	523 644	90	90
Jonio (Taranto)	2,436	338 438	180	193
Lecce	2,759	514 599	217	62
Puglia	19,346	2,615 3,154	163	—

Giuseppe Caraci

II. HISTORY

Over the course of more than two centuries, from the 3rd to the 4th century, Christianity spread through the Apulian region: first the bishoprics of Ecana, Canosa, Siponto, Venosa, Acerenza, Gnazia, Trani, Erdonia, Carmignano, and perhaps Bari arose; later, those of Brindisi, Oria, Lecce, Gallipoli, Taranto. After the fall of the Western Empire, possession of Apulia was long contested among the Byzantine emperors, the Lombards and the Saracens; but the former always maintained a notable superiority over the other claimants and in the 10th century were able to re-establish their dominion over most of the country.

Apulia was then governed by a "catepan" (or resident general), from whom the territory he directly governed took its name: "Catapanate" (later, in Italian, Capitanata). During this Byzantine preponderance, the local churches, like those of Calabria, found themselves under the jurisdiction of the patriarchs of Constantinople. In 1008 the Greek government ran grave danger because of an insurrection led by Melus of Bari, but it then managed to crush it. Nevertheless, not many years passed before the Normans arrived in the region, and they did not take long to assert their power and to erase the signs of Byzantine domination. At the beginnings of this new era, which is also that of the free communes, the maritime cities of Bari, Molfetta, Trani, Monopoli, etc., famous for their trade with the East, adorned themselves with great basilicas and superb monuments. In 1043, William of Hauteville, called Iron Arm, the first to style himself count of Apulia, established his residence, that is his capital, at Melfi. In a short time this city rose in importance above the others, so much so that the popes themselves judged it fit for the holding of various councils. The emperor Henry III granted the Normans the investiture of the lands they occupied; but Pope St. Leo IX offered the most strenuous resistance and would have continued it for years, had he not been advised by adverse fortune to accommodate himself to the accomplished fact. In 1059, having occupied Calabria, Robert Guiscard styled himself dux Apuliae et Calabriae, with full recognition on the part of the Church. Then came the conquest of Sicily and the constitution of the Kingdom: thus, at the end of the 11th century, Apulia entered that phase of southern history in which the formation of a strong feudal monarchy yoked to the same destiny the different peoples dwelling from the borders of Latium to Sicily. The Norman domination was succeeded by that of the Swabians, then the Aragonese, the Spanish, the Bourbon. The age of Frederick II is among the most memorable for the civil and artistic history and for the economic life of the region: at the Court masters of the school of Foggia flourished and in various cities magnificent monuments and splendid cathedral churches arose, such as that of Bitonto. In 1265 the pontiff Clement IV, reserving the Duchy of Benevento to the Church, invested with Apulia, Calabria and the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily Charles of Anjou, with the annual fee of 8 thousand gold ounces and of the church. On the death of Joanna II (1435) Apulia suffered the consequences of the struggle fought, for the succession, between the Angevins and the Aragonese. Heavy tributes and ordinary and extraordinary levies lasted a long time and did not diminish even when in the general Parliament of Naples the cities swore fidelity to the new king Alfonso of Aragon (1456). In the years 1479-80 there were raids by the Turks on the coasts, and to confront and repel them the populations submitted to the gravest sacrifices. In the following years there were acts of hostility on the part of the Republic of Venice, and then a general internal insurrection, which passed into history under the name of the Conspiracy of the Barons. The general conditions of the region worsened greatly during the Spanish predominance: latifundium, malaria, judicial and administrative disorder, feudal tyranny weighed upon the populations. In the 18th century Apulians of talent and learning took a large part in the movement of civil renewal of the Kingdom. During the reactionary movement of 1799, the whole of Apulia was reoccupied by the forces of Cardinal Ruffo, by various native "capimassa" and by the allied troops. In the decade of French domination various reforms were introduced: chief among them all, the abolition of feudalism. Finally, in 1860, after the collapse of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Apulia too became part of the Kingdom of Italy, remaining divided into the three ancient "giustizierati", that is into the three present compartments: Capitanata, Terra di Bari, Terra di Otranto.

Ersilio Michel

III. CONCILIAR REGION

In accordance with the provision of the Sacred Congregation Consistorial of 15 Feb.-22 March 1919 (cf. AAS, 11 [1919], pp. 72-74 and 106), supplemented by that of 29 Sept. 1933 (cf. AAS, 25 [1933], p. 466), P., as a conciliar region, is constituted by the union of several dioceses, but not by all those that fall within what is traditionally known as P. The present division, in fact, comprises the territories of 4 provinces (Bari, Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto), bordering to the north, through the boundaries of the diocese of Cerignola, with the Beneventan conciliar region and to the east with the Lucanian and Calabrian region.

The conciliar region comprises: five metropolitan sees with their respective suffragans; Bari with Conversano, Ruvo and Bitonto; Brindisi with Ostuni; Otranto with Gallipoli, Lecce and Ugento; Taranto with Castellaneta and Oria; Trani and Barletta with Andria and Bisceglie; and nine immediately subject sees: Gravina and Irsina, Molfetta-Giovinazzo and Terlizzi; Monopoli, Nardò and the prelatures nullius dioeceseos of Altamura and Acquaviva delle Fonti. The metropolitan church of Manfredonia with the suffragan see of Viesti and the episcopal sees of Foggia and Troia, at first aggregated to the Apulian conciliar region, were subsequently united and assigned, with their territory, to the Beneventan one.

The Apulian regional seminary, established at Lecce and transferred to Molfetta, remained there with the various theological and lyceal courses for the formation of the secular clergy; the seat, however, of the courts of first instance, unified into a regional tribunal for cases of matrimonial nullity according to the motu proprio Qua cura of 31 Dec. 1938, is Bari with ordinary appeal to Benevento, seat of the tribunal of the Beneventan conciliar region. In P. the metropolitans are all residential archbishops and enjoy the special rights listed in can. 274 ff. of the CIC, as well as the distinctive vestment of the pallium.

Giuseppe Casoria

IV. ART

Testimonies of prehistoric and protohistoric civilization document an intense life in the region, prior to its direct contacts with Hellas. Various architectural structures, certainly very ancient, such as the so-called Centopietre of Patù - a small village near the site of the Messapian city of Veretum destroyed by the Saracens in the 9th century - which is a small rectangular building formed of enormous squared blocks connected without mortar and covered by 26 large stones arranged in a double slope; or such as the remains of gigantic walls in other Messapian cities, like Muro Leccese, Gnazia, Manduria, have a relationship with proto-Doric constructions even if, for some scholars, in some cases, those walls can be considered works of the 4th century and even of the 3rd century B.C. On the other hand, architectural structures of pure Hellenic taste are very rare and of little significance, a taste moreover abundantly attested in the region by the thick harvest of Greek vases, of the finest period, found in the necropolises especially near Taranto. From them derives that magnificent flowering of vase art that occurred in the region even during the period of Roman domination, in part precisely connected to Hellenic models, such as the terracottas of Taranto of the Tanagra type, in part instead a manifestation of a very lively indigenous expressiveness.

Bridges, roads, aqueducts, the column of Brindisi that marks the end of the Appian Way, the aedicula of Fasano, the amphitheater of Lecce, the triumphal arch of Canosa recall the growing interest that Puglia had in Roman times during the Empire, of whose late age, at Barletta, there is a most singular testimony in the colossal bronze statue held by some historians to be the image of Valentinian, by others that of Heraclius or Marcian. On the other hand, testimonies of artistic value for the early Middle Ages are scarce, and, after the already orientalizing mosaics of the dome of the oratory of Casaranello, which belong to the 5th century, one must seek those testimonies in the paintings that cover the walls of the caves that in Terra d'Otranto were cenobies of Basilian monks. Such cenobies, carved into the rock and called laure, were precisely decorated with paintings for the most part prior to the 11th century and which reflect the various gradations of Byzantine taste, even if rendered with popular inflections.

The destructions caused by the Lombards in the 6th century, and by the Saracens and the Byzantines in the 9th century, were partly responsible for the extreme scarcity of Apulian monuments from before the 11th century; but this scarcity was certainly also determined by the very intense cultural, artistic, political and civil life that flourished in the region between the 10th and 13th centuries, and by the spirit of renewal that presided over its fortunate development. Then, in place of the old buildings, new ones began to rise everywhere, reflecting in their many aspects the most varied predilections, interests and tastes, and the constant aspiration toward a force and originality of expression, so for which Puglia during the Romanesque period appears among the most interesting centers of architectural activity in all of Europe. That is, the place where elements, tastes and inventions of Nordic stamp meet with others deriving from the Hellenistic East, and with these, rather than pairing, fuse, amalgamate, and resolve themselves with different spirits.

And it is in maritime Puglia, where the architectural forms that simultaneously had life in Lombardy seem precisely to prevail, that in Trani, Bitonto, Ruvo, and Bari the members take on a new impetus. And while in the facades sharp profiles appear flanked by those great square towers that also flank the apses, everywhere there is a sense of projection that seems to prelude the Gothic. But such a constant character in maritime Puglia falls away on the coasts of the Gulf of Manfredonia and in the Capitanata, where instead the clear spatial cadences of the classicism of the contemporary and older Hellenistic architecture of the coasts of Asia Minor prevail, which at the same time — through similarity of relations with the East — influenced the formation of the architecture of the Pisans.

These classicizing and Oriental characters of the art of the Capitanata, like the Nordic ones of maritime Puglia, do not however remain confined within the two territories. At times they mingle with one another, reduced into a very expressive and highly colorful architectural language, fused by the activity of the master carvers. These too, curious and aspiring toward the new, most skillful carvers, mixed Oriental and Nordic manners with classical reminiscences.

The masterpiece of Romanesque architecture in maritime Puglia is St. Nicholas of Bari (11th-12th century), crowned even originally by a dome similar to the other one seen at the crossing of the transept of the Cathedral of the same city. The type of church created in St. Nicholas was repeated with accents of greater and lesser originality in other Apulian buildings: at Bitonto, at Trani, and at Ruvo in their respective Cathedrals. An exemplary monument of Romanesque architecture in the Capitanata is instead the cathedral of Troia, likewise begun in the 11th century, like the tomb of Bohemond at Canosa, with clear reflections of models from Asia Minor. These also appear in St. Leonard and in St. Mary of Sipanto, in the cathedral of Monte Sant'Angelo and in that of Foggia.

But besides these forms, others of plainly Byzantine stamp also flourished in Puglia. They appear in domed constructions such as the cathedral of Venosa, St. Andrew and St. Francis of Trani, St. Peter of Otranto, St. Margaret of Bisceglie, the cathedral of Molfetta and St. Benedict of Brindisi. Most interesting is the so-called tomb of Rotari in the Gargano, surmounted by a very tall dome and with recollections of forms derived from Nordic and Oriental influences but above all Arab, both in structure and in decoration. During the Romanesque age Puglia was a most vital center of sculptural activity, of the highest importance for the influences that later (in the 13th century) it was to exert over all Italy. Byzantine, Muslim and also Nordic elements that flowed into the region in the 11th and 12th centuries were first elaborated with new vigor and a popular character. This is attested by the work of Accetto, who in the 11th century carved the pulpit of the cathedral of Canosa, and that of his contemporary Romualdo, who in the same Cathedral carved the episcopal throne supported by two elephants. In 1088 the throne of St. Nicholas of Bari was also worked, where Nordic elements (the exaggerated caryatids), classical elements (the transennae), and Muslim elements (the undercut friezes) create a whole full of strength and character.

Muslim reliefs are still found in capitals and portals in the Cathedral and in St. Nicholas of Bari, in the cathedral of Trani, in St. Nicholas of Lecce, in the portal of Ruvo, and in the pulpit of the cathedral of Bitonto, a work of 1226 by a master Nicola. But already during the 12th century the appearance in Apulian decorations of human images of a workmanship whose characters were ever closer to classical forms became increasingly frequent. And while Apulian artists such as Barisano da Trani became expert in the casting of great bronze doors, according to methods used at Byzantium, in the very portal of the cathedral of Troia, in other respects to be brought close to Muslim things, classical forms appeared; thus in that of St. Nicholas of Bari and in its marvelous great window. And still serene classical forms appear in the images of some corbels of Castel del Monte, of others of the cathedral of Ruvo, in the portal of Anseramo da Trani, in the portal of the church of the Rosary at Terlizzi, and finally they triumph solemnly in the pulpit of the cathedral of Ravello, in the image of Sigilgaida Rufolo carved by Nicola di Bartolomeo da Foggia (1272). These are the works known in the milieu from which emerged the sculptor who set Italian sculpture on new paths: Nicola da Puglia, also called Nicola Pisano (v.).

Then, between the 12th and 13th centuries, numerous buildings of a civil and military character were also constructed and decorated in Puglia, such as palaces, castles and fortifications; mention is made of the castles of Bari, of Gioia del Colle and of Lucera and, splendid above all, Castel del Monte built by Frederick II near Andria, in whose plastic decorations there also appear elements of that Gothic taste which was to penetrate Puglia only later, almost always through the activity of Campanian decorators and builders.

The painting of the Romanesque age has not left in Puglia sufficient elements to trace a historical profile of it; what appears there from that age, like the earlier painting of the Basilian grottoes, is a dialectal or popular version of Byzantine themes. Interesting nonetheless is the activity of the mosaicists who executed the great pavement of the cathedral of Otranto and the fragmentary one of the cathedral of Trani. In both, the cultural elements encountered there are the same as those of contemporary sculpture.

During the 14th century there is very little that is new in painting either, except for the Tuscanizing elements derived from the Neapolitan school, which recur here and there in works of lesser account and which have their greatest expression at the beginning of the 15th century in the paintings that cover the interior of the church of St. Catherine of Galatina. Then paintings from northern Italy, from the centers of the Adriatic slope, also begin to arrive in Puglia. Thus the Madonna known as della disfida, which is at Barletta in the Cathedral, a work by the Modenese Paolo Serafini.

But during the 15th century and then in the 16th, whatever good there was in painting in Puglia came entirely from Venice, and of Venetian stamp is the little that was done by local craftsmen. The Gentile Bellini of the cathedral of Monopoli, the Giovanni Bellini of the town hall of the same city, the Bartolomeo Vivarini of the cathedral of Modugno, of the Museo and of St. Nicholas of Bari, the Palma il Vecchio in the cathedral of Monopoli, like the Titianesque St. Francis of Paola of Montrone, the Madonna by Paolo Veronese and the St. Roch by Tintoretto of the cathedral of Bari, where there is also a Paris Bordone, while another painting assigned to that painter is in St. Mary Nuova of Terlizzi, where there is also a Nativity by Giovan Girolamo Savoldo, testify to how lively and intelligent an interest the Apulians then had in the finest Venetian painting.

But during the Baroque age, while in architecture — at Lecce especially, in the most sumptuous motifs, which reveal affinities with contemporary works of Sicily and Spain — the P. still asserted its own independence and its own creative force, and in sculpture the activity of local masters was exhausted precisely in the sculptural decorations of the architecture, in painting the Apulians recognized the liveliest center of their interests in Naples. Thus, while a Ferroglio, a Luca Giordano, a Bonito were working in the P., in Naples Carlo Rosa of Bitonto, the Fracanzano of Barletta and above all Corrado Giaquinto of Molfetta prospered in the fields of art. And still during the 19th century the ties with the major artistic center of southern Italy remained alive, not only because of the few and mediocre buildings erected in the P. by Neapolitan architects such as Alvino, but because the best Apulians went to Naples to train and therefore took part in Neapolitan artistic life. Thus Antonio Bortone, a sculptor of Lecce (1844-1932), thus the painters Saverio Altamura of Foggia (1826-97), Gioacchino Toma of Galatina (1838-91), Giuseppe de Nittis of Barletta (1846-84).

Emilio Lavagnino

V. FOLKLORE

The popular traditions of the Puglia region have a predominantly maritime character. The old customs of the work and life of fishermen still survive, especially in the small ports.

Precise customary rules govern the relations between the owner of the boat and the crew, as well as the distribution of the catch, the pay, and the food. Traditional too are the methods of fishing with the paranze (pairs of boats) and the forms for the sale of the fish, through an experienced auctioneer called siolecare. A lively religious feeling leaves its mark on the whole popular maritime life of the people of Puglia. Thus the call used at night to summon the crews of sailors to their work shift is "St. Nicholas"; and images of the Saint and of the Virgin, or of the Holy Family, are sometimes painted on the sides of the boats. There are also numerous processions at sea: among the most characteristic are those of the Virgin of the Martyrs at Molfetta (Sept. 8), of St. Nicholas at Bari (May 8) and of St. Theodore at Brindisi (Aug.): the sacred image, placed upon an altar entrusted to a paranza decked out for the feast, is taken out to sea for a couple of miles with a following of hundreds of small boats and returns in triumph to the port.

Characteristic expressions of popular worship are the pilgrimages to the sanctuary of St. Michael the Archangel on the Gargano, to the basilica of St. Nicholas of Bari, to the Incoronata near Foggia, to the Madonna of Finisterre venerated at S. Maria di Leuca, the extreme tip of Italy, etc. In the feasts of Holy Week and Christmas, survivals of the sacred drama are frequent, both in the most elementary forms of dramatic processions with wooden statues, called mysteries, sometimes in considerable number and with a following of costumed characters, sometimes in the more complex forms of true sacred representations such as, for example, those of the countryside around Taranto for Christmas (La sonata dei pastori) or for Epiphany (Il viaggio dei Re magi). Agricultural life too offers interesting folkloric aspects in the P.: among rural buildings mention should be made of the trulli, or casedde, which at Alberobello and in other small centers of the Ionian province form entire urban agglomerations, highly characteristic with their little domes with whitish tops. The olive harvest is governed by ancient work customs, as is the reaping in the sun-scorched Tavoliere: it closes with a cape canale, a lavish dinner offered to the owner of the estate; for the grape harvest, particular lyrical songs resound. Native to the P. is the tarantella, a courtship dance performed by one or more couples to the sound of castanets: it derives its name from the city of Taranto, and not from that of the tarantula, a venomous spider whose bite is often life-threatening. There does indeed also exist the dance of the tarantolati, which sometimes goes on for twenty or thirty hours, but it has a curative purpose and is clearly different from the graceful tarantella. The forms of peasant art in the P. often attain notable expressive value: mention is made of the saddlebags woven on household looms, the embroideries and laces with characteristic motifs such as, for example, the pinwheel, the rustic ceramics of Grottaglie, of Ruvo and other centers, the tastefully carved chests and marriage coffers. Copious too is the harvest of songs and legends, which often display a profound reworking through adaptation to their setting, even if they reflect patterns, themes, or models common to other regions. - See plates VI-VIII.

Paolo Toschi