What to see · Manfredonia

More places of interest

• Castello Svevo Angioino

  The castle of Manfredonia, also known as the Swabian-Angevin-Aragonese Castle, is a military structure built, enlarged and remodelled under Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese rule, in the centre of Manfredonia. It houses the National Archaeological Museum of Manfredonia.

  What to see

  Tradition credits King Manfred with starting the work, but the first documents date from April 1279, in the Angevin period, and speak of recruiting labour to begin construction; it is possible that Charles I made use of structures already present, absorbing them into the project. The castle is not the product of a single plan: it developed from the original design by Pietro d'Angicourt through successive transformations, enlargements and rebuildings. Originally it had a quadrangular plan, enclosed by a curtain wall, with five square towers: four at the corners and the fifth, probably, near the main gate on the north-east side, of which few traces remain. The corner towers were later absorbed into cylindrical bastions, and in the outermost wall, built in the Aragonese period, four cylindrical towers were set, lower than the inner ones and better suited to the defensive techniques of the time; in its regularity and geometric linearity the complex recalls the building canons of the Swabians.

  In 1528, under Spanish rule, the town withstood the siege of a French army led by Odet de Foix, Viscount of Lautrec; after the siege, around the middle of the sixteenth century, a pentagonal bastion was added on the west, absorbing one of the circular towers and called the bastion of the Annunziata because of a marble panel above the outer corridor showing an Annunciation. On 16 August 1620 Manfredonia was attacked by an Ottoman force of at least six thousand men led by Damat Halil Pasha: the Turks took most of the town and sacked it, while many citizens took refuge in the castle, where a small garrison of about a hundred men, under the castellan Fernando de Velasco, held out for about seven hours. The next day the exhausted and outnumbered defenders surrendered and on 18 August were allowed to leave the castle and the town; the Turks plundered its gunpowder, arms and provisions, then burned it and abandoned it. The attack showed the fortress's limits: insufficient artillery, a lack of adequate parapets and the presence of taller buildings, such as the Vischi and Cessa palaces, from which the attackers fired into the castle. Having lost its defensive function, in the eighteenth century it was used as barracks and the western tower as a prison; in 1901 it was bought by the comune of Manfredonia, which in 1968 gave it to the State on condition that an archaeological museum be set up there, open to the public since 1980.

  Visiting

  The castle is in the centre of Manfredonia and is open to the public as an archaeological museum. The sources consulted give no opening hours or fees: check them.

  Our editors' tip

  The National Archaeological Museum keeps the finds discovered in the Gargano area, including an important collection of Daunian stelae.

• Cattedrale Siponto

  The basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore di Siponto, commonly called the basilica of Siponto, was the ancient cathedral of Siponto, the town and port of Apulia now absorbed as a district into the urban area of Manfredonia. It was raised to a minor basilica in 1977 by Cardinal Corrado Ursi, representing Pope Paul VI, and is dedicated to Maria Santissima di Siponto.

  What to see

  The building, a jewel of Apulian Romanesque art even if it shows Islamic and Armenian influences, has a square plan and includes two independent churches, one of them underground, the crypt; the two apses are visible on the south and east sides, while on the west side opens a monumental medieval portal, facing the road that enters Manfredonia. The first documented date is 1117, the year of the solemn consecration and of the re-deposition of the relics of Saint Laurence Majorano under the high altar; the church served as a cathedral until 1323. The upper church stands on the lower one, datable to the early Middle Ages and built with the ruins of the old basilica that had collapsed after an earthquake; the interior can be dated to the eleventh century. On the facade the coat of arms of Archbishop Domenico Ginnasi, who restored the building, used to be seen, and the small bell was placed in the eighteenth century. The icon of Maria Santissima di Siponto, of the eleventh century, and the wooden statue known as the Sipontina or Madonna with the staring eyes, in polychrome carob wood of Byzantine origin, are now kept for security reasons in the cathedral of Manfredonia.

  Beside it remain the ruins of the ancient early Christian basilica, in the form of a Latin cross with three naves, with restored polychrome mosaic floors, partly moved inside the medieval basilica. Some hypotheses trace its building to Bishop Felix I, others to Laurence Majorano, who would have built or enlarged it; the site was previously occupied by a public building of the Augustan age. In March 2016 the work by the artist Edoardo Tresoldi «Where art rebuilds time» was inaugurated: a wire-mesh reconstruction of the ancient basilica, fourteen metres high and weighing seven tonnes, part of a redevelopment of the archaeological site costing three and a half million euros of public funds, after which the site recorded a marked rise in visitors. The archaeological park also includes the excavations of ancient Siponto, the foundations of the walls and the hypogea; only part of the site has been excavated, because the area of archaeological interest is much larger and partly falls on private property.

  Visiting

  The basilica stands at Siponto, south-west of the historic centre of Manfredonia. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them. The icon of Maria Santissima di Siponto is celebrated on 31 August; on 1 September takes place the feast of Saint Andrew, with a procession of boats at sea.

  Our editors' tip

  Next to the basilica the burial ground of Santa Maria Regina can be seen, well preserved; in the pine wood of the Lido di Siponto there are also two more hypogea used in the Neolithic.

• Chiesa San Domenico

  The church of San Domenico in Manfredonia is next to the old convent of the Dominican friars, now palazzo San Domenico, on piazza del Popolo, today the town hall. The complex includes the chapel of the Maddalena, decorated with fourteenth-century frescoes.

  What to see

  The building of the chapel, in fact an apse dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, next to the church and the convent, was ordered by Charles II of Anjou in 1294, after the donation to the Dominican friars of a site on the coastal stretch of the walls; the work was financed with one florin a week. The original structure was destroyed by the Turkish assault of 1620, but the chapel, perhaps by chance, was spared and lay hidden for centuries: it came to light on 15 November 1895, during ordinary works, with its frescoes showing Saint Nicholas, Saint Dominic, the Tree of Jesse with the lineage of David and the Magdalene at the deposition of Christ. Today the old chapel keeps four precious wall frescoes of the fourteenth century.

  After the devastation of 1620 the complex was rebuilt soon afterwards on the old structure. The new eighteenth-century project reduced the church to a single nave, as it appears today; the side walls are lined with six Baroque altars, although inside there are many echoes of the Romanesque style. The Gothic facade has been restored and its rose window reinstated in 1960.

  Visiting

  The church is in Manfredonia, next to palazzo San Domenico on piazza del Popolo. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.

  Our editors' tip

  The convent of the Dominican fathers, who lived there from the end of the thirteenth century until the Napoleonic era, officiating in the adjoining church, is now palazzo San Domenico, marked by a colonnade and a small loggia.

• Fontana Piscitelli

  The Piscitelli fountain takes its name from its sculptor, Tommaso Piscitelli. It stands in Manfredonia on piazza Falcone-Borsellino, by the church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo, on the lungomare del Sole, near the marina.

  What to see

  It was commissioned in 1932 by the mayor Pietro Simone from the Apulian artist Tommaso Piscitelli, of Giovinazzo. The project arose in a broader urban renewal scheme promoted by the same mayor, which included the seafront, the viale della Stazione with trees planted on both sides, the paving of many streets and the installation of many fountains supplying free drinking water. The design of the fountain was drawn up by the engineer Pagano and the cost was covered by a loan from the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti; its placing and inauguration, in piazza del Duomo, took place on 10 May 1935.

  It is a monumental bronze group: a giant, symbol of the Gargano, holds a bowl, emblem of abundance, around which are set three young women representing the main local economic activities; at the top of the bowl three putti hold a murex shell. The fountain was removed from piazza del Duomo in 1967, restored in 1992 by the local artist Franco Troiano and then repositioned, by Franco Tretola, near the church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo, in the fishermen's quarter called «case marinare». In the restoration the element originally placed at the top of the group was replaced with the murex shell: a change judged invasive, of a meaning unknown today and criticised on aesthetic grounds.

  Visiting

  The fountain is in a square, and its position has changed several times: check its current location before going.

  Our editors' tip

  By the same Piscitelli, and commissioned by the same mayor, is the sculptural group of the Monument to the Fisherman, improperly called «of Neptune», which still stands in its original position, in piazza Marconi, where the «città» station, the last stop of the Foggia-Manfredonia line, once stood.

• Coppa Nevigata

  Coppa Nevigata is a prehistoric archaeological site in Apulia, south-west of Manfredonia, on the coast south of the Gargano, in what is now the locality of Cupola-Beccarini. It stands on one of the mounds at the edge of an ancient coastal lagoon.

  What to see

  The place, with easy access to the sea and many natural resources, was inhabited from the Neolithic. In the Bronze Age a significant settlement developed there, with contacts with the Aegean world: Mycenaean pottery imported from the Aegean is found there, later also reproduced on the spot. Extraction of purple dye from murex shells, of which the crushed shells remain, and pressing of olives were widely practised, bearing witness to the very ancient tradition of olive oil in Apulia. Some areas near the fortifications and the shore of the lagoon were used for collective activities, connected with the storage and processing of cereals and with the extraction of purple dye; later these activities moved inside the settlement.

  The settlement was defended by dry stone walls. From the first half of the second millennium BC survive traces of a hut with curved edges, soon replaced by a great defensive wall, five and a half metres wide, with an entrance made of megalithic blocks; later the fortification became more complex, with narrow passages, postern gates and towers. The site is today excavated periodically by a team from Sapienza University of Rome, directed by Alberto Cazzella.

  Visiting

  The site lies south-west of Manfredonia, in the locality of Cupola-Beccarini. The sources consulted give no opening hours or access arrangements: check them, not least because the site is under periodic excavation.

  Our editors' tip

  The production of purple dye from murex shells documented at Coppa Nevigata, from the Bronze Age, around 1800 BC, is according to the studies the earliest attested in Italy.

Some links may earn BigItalia a commission, at no extra cost to you.