In 1063 Trani issued the Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris, held to be the oldest maritime code of the Western world: its harbour was then the most important on the Adriatic, well placed for the Crusades, and the city kept a consul in Venice and consulates as far as northern Europe. The cathedral stands at the water's edge: Apulian Romanesque in pale stone, mirrored in the harbour, one of the most elegant sights in the South, and unrivalled at sunset. Beside it, Frederick II's Swabian castle sets its feet in the sea.
The medieval Giudecca, with the Scolanova synagogue returned to worship after seven centuries, speaks for one of the most important Jewish communities in the South: rabbi Isaiah of Trani was born here, among the greatest commentators of the Italian Middle Ages. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century the city housed the royal court of the Terra di Bari, and that long judicial vocation explains its role today as a provincial capital alongside Barletta and Andria. Its quarries yield the stone of Trani, a pale limestone exported everywhere. The harbour is a drawing room: an aperitivo among the moored boats, sea urchins and raw fish, Moscato di Trani in the glass.
Chiesa di Ognissanti · Chiesa di San Francesco · Chiesa di San Giacomo and 3 more
Burrata di Andria
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Next up: Saint Nicholas the Pilgrim, patron canonised by popular acclaim, Wednesday 2 June
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 32 km away
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📅 Every year, on 2 June
Trani celebrates Saint Nicholas the Pilgrim on 2 June; a young Greek who died in the city in 1094 after several miracles, he was canonised immediately by popular acclaim, and in 1099, during the First Crusade, construction of the cathedral dedicated to him began.
Chiesa di Ognissanti Romanesque harbour church of Trani, called of the Templars or of Purgatory, with three apses on the sea. Chiesa di San Francesco Romanesque church in Trani with three domes covered in chiancarelle, founded in 1176 as the Holy Trinity. Chiesa di San Giacomo Romanesque church in Trani, first cathedral of the archdiocese, with a portal on elephants and Saint Nicholas' Chiesa di Santa Chiara Fourteenth-century church in Trani with Santafede's Madonna delle Grazie; the Poor Clares' monastery is now a Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
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