The patron saints of Barletta are Saint Roger and Our Lady of Sterpeto, celebrated together on the second Sunday of July: the double feast has been held every year since 1732. Saint Roger was bishop of Canne for thirty years, and in this role opposed by every means the decline of the town from which Barletta itself is said to have arisen; devotion to Our Lady of Sterpeto is instead linked, according to local tradition, to the plague of 1656, believed to have been inexplicably slowed through her intercession. A triumphal arch dedicated to her, about 18 metres tall and in neo-Renaissance style, was built in the second half of the 19th century.
Barletta received a first wave of migrants precisely from Canne after its destruction in 547, followed by a second exodus of the Canosini in 586 with the arrival of the Lombards; the Saracen raids of 848 and the devastation of 875 marked the end of Canusium and brought its last inhabitants to nearby Baruli. At the start of the 16th century the city was the setting for the famous Challenge of Barletta: the clash between Italian and French knights, which took place on 13 February 1503 in the countryside between Andria and Corato, ended with victory for the Italian side led by captain Ettore Fieramosca. Near the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, linked to pilgrimage towards the Holy Land, still stands today the Colossus of Barletta, a gigantic bronze statue known as Heraclius, restored in the Middle Ages.
