The patron saint of Corato is Saint Cataldus, celebrated on 10 May: the church dedicated to him holds a precious silver bust-reliquary depicting him, together with a fresco of the Madonna di Costantinopoli from 1559, brought to light only recently after remaining walled up for centuries.
The origins of the current town date back to the 3rd century BC, during the Roman Republican era, when Scipio Africanus rewarded veterans of the conquest of Carthage by granting them territories in Apulia: according to one tradition, a certain Caius Oratus, a Roman patrician, founded on one of these territories a village to which he gave his own name. The Roman town was crossed by an inner stretch of the Via Traiana, and its square-shaped layout has, according to some scholars, contributed to explaining the origin of its name. In the 5th century Corato was the setting for raids by the Visigoths of Alaric and, later, Saracen incursions: to defend themselves, the inhabitants built a tower along the road climbing from the port of Trani and another, called Turris Longa, in an advanced dominant position, serving as a lookout.
