|
| |
|
BARLETTA |
| |
|
|
| |
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/¬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).
|
| |
|
