Carapelle

Carapelle is one of the five royal sites. The village came into being in 1774, within the reclamation of this part of the Tavoliere wanted by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, which led to the founding of four other villages: together with Carapelle they are Orta Nova, Ordona, Stornara and Stornarella, and it is from that common origin that comes the name by which they are still called all together. The village stands along the banks of the river that carries its own name, in the middle of the plain, and borders Foggia to the north. It is not an ancient place and does not pretend to be one: it was born to make a land yield that had not yielded before, and that is still its trade — vegetables, and above all tomatoes, then wheat, wine and artichokes.

A comune, though, it became much later. Until the first of February 1958 Carapelle was a hamlet of Orta Nova; on that day it gained administrative autonomy, and since then that date has been the comune's own day. The real growth came in the eighties, with a boom of inhabitants and of business owed to two very concrete reasons: nearness to Foggia and houses that cost less. The village's calendar has been made accordingly, between things of the earth and things of fire: at the beginning of September there is the fair of the grano arso, recognised as a quality fair; on the first Sunday of October the feast of the patron, the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary; on the last Saturday of October the chestnut fair; and on 7 December the bonfire of the Immaculate Conception.