Teatro Margherita

Bari, Teatro Margherita, foto d’epoca- pubblico dominio-

Il Teatro Margherita, costruito nel 1893 in un’ansa del molo vecchio di Bari, si presenta come una struttura galleggiante edificata su palafitte. Danneggiato poco dopo la sua apertura da un incendio, venne riedificato e inaugurato nuovamente nel 1914. Fu costruito sul mare e collegato alla terraferma da un pontile, per aggirare il divieto di costruire nuovi teatri sul suolo comunale. L’edifico divenne sede di spettacoli di varietà alla moda, un vero e proprio cafè-chantant. Durante la seconda guerra mondiale, nel 1943, fu occupato dagli anglo-americani, che ne fecero la loro base logistica e un luogo di intrattenimento per le truppe, ribattezzandolo Garrison Theatre. Subì numerosi danni durante i bombardamenti del 1945 e fu ripristinato, ma esclusivamente come cinema, nel 1946. Negli anni ‘80 del Novecento, il Teatro Margherita venne chiuso e lasciato in stato di abbandono sino al 2005, quando, molto lentamente, iniziò una lunga stagione di restauri. Finalmente riaperto al pubblico, oggi è un’importante sede di mostre ed esposizioni di arte contemporanea.

Dal punto di vista architettonico, l’edifico all’esterno ha conservato molte delle caratteristiche originarie, con la facciata in stile liberty voluta dall’architetto Francesco de Giglio nel 1914. Un’ampia arcata vetrata, affiancata da torri terminanti in pinnacoli, delimita l’ingresso principale. Lungo tutta la facciata si alternano decorazioni di chiaro gusto novecentesco: festoni, maschere e ghirlande stilizzate. A coronamento dell’edificio si innalza una cupola ottagonale con terminazione a lucernario.

Per info e prenotazioni:

Piazza IV Novembre 70122 Bari

Tel.: +390805776200

Bari, Teatro Margherita prima dei restauri iniziati nel 2005, pubblico dominio

Bari, Teatro Margherita, dopo i restauri (foto i Ainars Brūvelis, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54351258)

Il Liberty a Bari

Lo ‘stile’ chiamato Liberty fu una corrente artistica di portata internazionale che si diffuse in Europa alla fine del XIX secolo. Nella sua declinazione più attardata, arrivò pure in Italia meridionale. A Bari il Liberty si caratterizza per un accentuato gusto barocco, in cui l’esuberanza decorativa si riversa soprattutto nelle facciate e negli interni dei prestigiosi palazzi borghesi del centro murattiano, dove proliferano forme floreali, cornucopie e motivi ornamentali, desunti dalla scultura e dalle arti applicate internazionali. Si segnalano ai viaggiatori, oltre al bel palazzo Atti, con i suoi balconi elegantemente scolpiti, il Palazzo Kursaal Santa Lucia, il Teatro Margherita, e poco distante, in via Sparano, Palazzo Mincuzzi.

Bari, Palazzo Mincuzzi, foto di Kodos – Opera propria, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17849927

Bari

La città si Bari sembra formata da due distinti nuclei urbani, quasi giustapposti, a cui nella seconda metà del Novecento se ne è aggiunto anche un terzo. Tre città in una, tre culture diverse, tre momenti storici diversi. Partendo dal mare e dirigendosi verso la campagna, si trova per prima, distesa su una penisola naturale, la città vecchia, un tempo circondata da possenti mura.

Disegno di Bari per Il Regno di Napoli in prospettiva, di G. B. Pacichelli, 1703, (immagine tratta da Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla from Sevilla, España – “Bari”, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51281654)

Il centro storico, con la sua planimetria che evoca l’Oriente mediterraneo, appare un labirinto di vicoli e case, l’una a ridosso dell’altra, racchiuse entro i due poli architettonici e simbolici della città medievale: il castello e la basilica. Tra l’uno e l’altro polo si snoda un racconto urbano lungo quasi 3000 anni, fatto di strade, mosaici, chiese, edicole, confraternite, palazzi nobiliari, archi e corti che si aprono all’improvviso, dietro angoli che al viaggiatore potevano sembrare ciechi.

A ridosso di questa “Bari Vecchia” si giustappone la seconda città, quella conosciuta come il “centro murattiano”.

Non vi è un vero confine, una volta demolite le mura medievali, le due Bari si sono incontrate, senza però mai confondersi o mescolarsi. Un’unica larga strada – corso Vittorio Emanuele – separa queste due realtà urbane; attraversandola si lascia alle proprie spalle la quasba e il Medioevo e ci si ritrova a passeggiare nel borgo murattiano, caratterizzato da raffinate planimetrie ottocentesche. Questa seconda Bari, che si estende sino alla ferrovia, ha una semplice forma a parallelepipedo, entro il quale sono disegnate a scacchiera le strade. Gli assi viari perpendicolari presentano un orientamento Sud-Nord. Il mare a Bari è a Nord, per questo, percorrendo il centro si ha l’impressione che tutte le strade si allunghino sino al mare, sino alla linea d’orizzonte, dove il blu dell’Adriatico incontra il cielo. Diversamente le strade parallele hanno un orientamento Est-Ovest.

Dietro il borgo murattiano, la ferrovia, che corre parallela al mare, segna l’inizio della terza Bari, quella più schiettamente moderna e contemporanea, dove sono proliferati sia raffinati quartieri residenziali, sia le periferie popolari. Da qui la città si rivolge all’entroterra, quasi diradandosi verso la campagna pugliese.

Bibliografia di riferimento: F. Falagna, Bari città vetrina, in Viaggio in provincia, a cura di E. Angiuli, Biblos Edizioni, Cittadella di Padova 1991, p.406.

The Aragonese Castle Of Taranto

The Aragonese Castle of Taranto, called Castel Sant’Angelo, is a beautiful Renaissance manor, built on an ancient natural depression at the end of the islet on which the Old City stands. The current appearance is what was conferred on it in the Aragonese era. The Castle was built on a previous defensive structure, whose most ancient architectural phase is the Byzantine one. Thanks to archival documents from the 13th century, it is possible to reconstruct its medieval appearance: a fort with quadrangular towers designed for defensive purposes, that is, for throwing arrows or other material from the narrow slits that opened along the ramparts.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, when war technology had completely revolutionized the way of fighting and defending, thanks to the widespread use of artillery and firearms, the Castle proved inadequate and for this it was necessary to change its architectural characteristics. It now seems that it was the great architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini who made the drawings at the base of the new system of the Castle of Taranto. Its architecture is based on precise geometric-mathematical rules that refer to the Sienese architect’s fully Renaissance cultural universe: four cylindrical towers are joined together by large and elegant curtains that make a quadrilateral. Over the centuries, the Renaissance structure has been modified, with the addition of other defensive structures and the enlargement of the moat area. Finally the manor was further tampered with in the last century, to transform it into a prison and to make room for the construction of the revolving bridge that connects new Taranto to old Taranto. Since 1887 it has been the seat of the Italian Navy, which currently guarantees free daily guided tours inside the Castle.

Taranto, the Aragonese castle, (photo by Livioandronico2013 – his own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30324730)

info: 0997753438  Email: infocastelloaragonese@libero.it

The Marta Museum In Taranto

Via Cavour 10,

open every day from 8.30 -19.30, last access 19.00

The National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, MArTA, is certainly one of the most important Italian museum. It was established in 1887 and has been located since then in the former eighteenth-century Convent of the Alcantarini Friars. Little remains of the original building that develops around the porticoed perimeter of the cloister. The numerous finds, which emerged from the subsoil of Taranto, experienced a first arrangement at the end of the nineteenth century, which was followed by new rearrangements, aimed at organizing, in a museographically coherent manner, the rich archaeological heritage preserved here. Over the years, the museum has been temporarily closed to the public, dismantled and re-assembled. At the end of a long process of adaptation and restructuring works, in December 2007 the new museum of Taranto was inaugurated, officially renamed Marta.

The ground floor houses temporary exhibitions, whereas the very rich permanent collection is set up on the upper floors.

The exhibition itinerary, which is closely linked to the territorial references, is organized by thematic areas connected to the different aspects of life and history of the Taranto area, within broad chronological ranges. The visitor can admire numerous red and black Attic vases decorated with mythological stories; you can observe exceptional bronze and marble sculptures and be enchanted in front of magnificent jewels in gold and hard stones, which are the result of the refined art of local goldsmiths and testimony of the splendor and opulence achieved by this society.

Testa di donna, IV secolo a. C(Foto di Maria – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20263809)

Orecchino in oro, IV secolo a.C. (foto di Maria – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20263809)

Trulli

Trulli in Alberobello (photo by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60159414)

The trullo, which is a distant heir to the exquisitely Mediterranean construction model of the thòlos, with its recognizable truncated-conical shape, is a dry construction that arises from wisdom and peasant ingenuity. To make the stony limestone soil of the area cultivable, farmers were forced to remove the abundant layers of rock present in the soil and decided to use them as a building material. Even the modern traveler who arrives in Alberobello has the impression of being in a place out of time and in a magical dimension; however, these buildings are relatively recent and originate not so much from magic but for much more practical reasons – precisely for tax reasons! The trulli of the Apulian Murgia are inextricably linked to the fame and black legend of the Count of Conversano, Gian Girolamo Acquaviva d Aragona, known as the Guercio di Puglia. The feared feudal lord, known for his unscrupulousness and for a very ambitious policy, administered these territories in the seventeenth century in the name of the Spanish Viceroys. The local tradition says that the count, greedy for profits, in contravention of the royal ban on building new cities, had allowed the construction of the trulli to better exploit the agricultural resources of those lands and the work of peasants. On occasion of the control visits, the Guercio is said to have the cones hurriedly demolished and then rebuilt, as soon as the Spanish ‘tax assessment’ was concluded.

One of the characteristics of the trulli is that each one bears a strange design on top, in addition to a carved pinnacle; these are symbols of different nature: some refer to age-old pagan or esoteric traditions, others allude to Christian iconography. They are made with lime milk directly on the chiancarelle, that is, the stones that make up the cone of the roof. These drawings did not only distinguish the families who owned the trulli, but took on an apotropaic value, they were believed to remove the evil eye and propitiated a good harvest. The most common and easily recognizable symbols are: the Jewish candlestick, the symbol of the Sun-Christ, the pierced heart of Mary which alludes to the Passion. Other pagan symbols very common on the trulli of Alberobello are those of Taurus, Jupiter and Venus.

“Pino Pascali Di Polignano” Museum Foundation

00

The Castello Svevo

With its mighty and severe bulk, the Castello di Bari stands at the far edge of the old city, where it once served as the pivot of the ancient city wall.

Bari, Castello Svevo (photo by Carlo Dani – his own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77189036)

The castle of Bari is a manor which contains at least two others inside, as in a game of Chinese boxes. Archaeological evidence has in fact revealed the presence of defensive structures from the Roman era, on whose remains a Byzantine Kastron and other buildings with residential functions were built. On this site it was Roger II of Sicily in 1130 who ordered Saracen workers to raise the castle. The people of Bari have never loved this place, which is such an evident symbol of royal power – and in fact, several times it was demolished by the population over the centuries. With the arrival of the Swabians, and with the frame-up policy desired by Emperor Frederick II, in the first half of the thirteenth century the Norman defensive structure was recovered, after being seriously damaged during the popular riots of the previous century. The mighty quadrilateral building, with a trapezoidal plan equipped with corner towers made of bosses, was softened by single and double lancet windows and by a wonderful Gothic-Federician portal, which was sculpted with anthromorphic and zoomorphic figures, mythological motifs and clearly heraldic symbols inspired by iconography imperial. On the ashlar keystone stands an eagle clutching a lion between its claws, a recurring symbol in Federician architecture.

The vestibule, which can be accessed through the portal, also dates back to this same era and aesthetic sensibility. The environment has a cross-vaulted roof, supported by columns and pilasters with finely carved capitals: a world of stone in which the Gothic Federician naturalism coexists with Islamic suggestions. It is known that among the workers at the service of the emperor there were many Arab artists, craftsmen and stonemasons. Just in the castle of Bari, to testify to the cultural melting pot promoted by the Swabian sovereign, a man called Ismael worked together with the stonecutters Finarro di Canosa and Mele da Stignano; this man left his signature on one of the capitals.

After the Swabians were the Angevins, who wanted to restore the north area of ​​the castle and the reception rooms; despite this the new rulers never stayed in this house, which remained abandoned until the arrival of Isabella Sforza and her daughter Bona in 1524. They are the true ladies of the castle, who made it a luxurious Renaissance residence surrounded by a renewed city wall. Inside of it there were loggias, stairs, halls and frescoes which embellished the severe fort structure. With the death of Bona Sforza, the castle of Bari no longer experienced phases of splendor, but was left to fall into disrepair.

The Swabian castle is not only a building of great historical and architectural value, but the stories related to a legendary meeting between Saint Francis and Frederick II still echo within its ancient walls. It is in fact the episode that tells us how, right in the rooms of the man from Bari, emperor Frederick II forced the poor man of Assisi to struggle with temptations of the flesh, although there is no written evidence for that.

Basilica Of San Nicola

Bari, basilica of San Nicola (photo by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61405024)

The basilica of San Nicola, commissioned by the Benedictine abbot Elia in 1089, was consecrated in 1197. The cultured abbot wanted to build a building that in itself summarized numerous functions and different meanings. It was to be a pilgrimage church, the mother church of the people of the Bari area and a point of reference for those who came from the sea and immediately confronted the towering silhouette of its towers.

Entering the urban fabric, after skirting the castle and the cathedral, walking along Via delle Crociate, crossing the Angevin arch, you reach the square of San Nicola.

The basilica, which is an expression par excellence of Apulian Romanesque architecture, imposes itself majestically with its severe and candid tripartite facade, enlivened only by blind arches that chase each other up to the tympanum of the main portal and, on the upper register, the slight chiaroscuro play of single and double lancet windows.

The solid volumes of the building are fully perceptible thanks to the deep arches that run on the side perimeter of the building.

The upper register is lightened on the sides by the elegant flow of six-light windows which, like stone embroidery, allow the light to create intriguing plastic effects.

It is a perfectly unitary structure with a fortress-like appearance that refers to the large Romanesque cathedrals of the North in the layout of the façade flanked by two mighty towers, but which does not renounce to enclose the volumes of domes and vaults within rectilinear structures, in harmony with the techniques Middle Eastern construction and in homage to the long Apulian construction tradition. To allow the influx of pilgrims, who flocked to visit the relics of San Nicola, along the perimeter of the basilica there are five portals decorated with sculptures that successfully combine the beauty of the forms with the didactic richness of the contents. All the energy of the Apulian Romanesque style explodes in the sculptural decorative apparatus of San Nicola: populated worlds of monstra, drawn directly from the Nordic bestiaries, coexist with precise classic citations, enriched by motifs of clear Islamic origin, taken from fabrics and precious objects that arrived on the Apulian coasts with pilgrims and merchants.

You can also spot the portal known as the lions, which opens on the left side of the basilica, just below the first of the side arches. Along the archivolt, the story of the Normans, new lords of Bari, is told through sculpture. With a ductus of extraordinary narrative and propagandistic happiness, the refined textures of the Bayeux tapestry seem to take on new life and new forms in these sculptures landed in the city to tell the stories of the lords of the North to the new southern subjects.

Arazzo di Bayeux, 11th century, today exhibited in the Center Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Bayeux, detail.

Bari, Basilica of San Nicola, porta dei leoni, 12th century, detail.

The sculptures of the two oxen stylofori that adorn the prothyrum of the central portal of the basilica are decidedly more Mediterranean in flavor, the work of an anonymous sculptor are able to combine motifs of the local classical tradition with a language that is already fully novel and European.

For centuries, the elders of old Bari have narrated a legend to travelers who stopped in front of the church. When the body of the Saint of Myra reached the city:

i cittadini non erano d’accordo sul luogo dove riporlo. Perciò fu stabilito di prendere dei buoi dalla campagna e di deporre le reliquie in una chiesa da costruirsi lì dove gli animali avessero trasportato il carro. Allora i buoi trassero il carro sul quale era stato posato il santo corpo dalla riva del mare. E la chiesa di San Nicola fu costruita lì, nel mare, donde l’acqua penetra talvolta nella cripta. (A. Adorno, Itinéraire d’Anselme Adorno en Terre Sainte)

Indeed, the position of the Nicolaian basilica, despite the legend, is by no means casual, but responds to precise symbolic and political needs. The new Palatine church was to rise where the Catapano palace stood, to indicate that now the patron saint, and with him the Norman lords who had sponsored the construction of the church, were to occupy the place and role that once belonged to the Byzantines; moreover, its position close to the sea had to emphasize the close relationship of the city with the Adriatic Sea. For this reason, the apse area of the basilica, oriented towards the sea, is treated as if it were a second facade, with a large window decorated with carved animals. These are elephants and sphinxes, which in addition to their symbolic meanings allude to that East towards which pilgrims and merchants headed or returned, after embarking in Bari under the protection of San Nicola.

Bari, Basilica of San Nicola, Sphinx carved on the apse window, detail.

The interior of the church has a Latin cross plan with the arms of the transept contracted; it is divided into three naves by huge oriental imported columns, adorned with carved capitals that alternate with pillars. The transverse arches follow the first building phase.

In the presbyteral area, travelers will be able to admire the so-called chair of Abbot Elia. The seat, which was intended for the high prelate, is entirely carved in marble by an artist who was able to combine the Byzantine refinement in the treatment of the decorative parts, with the Romanesque expressionism of the telamons holding the chair and depicted with the deformed face by the effort and weight of sin.

Bari, basilica di San Nicola, interno, cattedra dell’abate Elia

Bari, basilica di San Nicola, interno, cattedra dell’abate Elia, particolare.

In questa solenne cornice romanica si confrontano, in un suggestivo contrasto, la raffinata art de cour trapiantata dall’Ile de France dagli angioini, che succedettero ai Normanni e agli Svevi alla guida della città, e il fasto orientale, dal sapore tutto bizantino, della cripta gremita di arredi sontuosi ed icone. (M. S. Calò Mariani, L’immagine ed il culto di san Nicola a Bari e in Puglia)

Si accede alla cripta tramite una scalinata posta sulla navata laterale che conduce il fedele in una dimensione mistica, grazie alla profusione di icone, lampade, arredi in metalli preziosi, tessuti e ricami che concorrono a rendere estremamente suggestiva la vista delle reliquie di San Nicola, qui conservate.

Bari, basilica di San Nicola, cripta. (GNU Free Documentation License)

Bari, basilica di San Nicola, cripta, colonna dell’inferriata.

La cripta non è solo lo spazio del sacro, ma è anche lo spazio del racconto e della leggenda, tutto concorre a indurre il devoto al raccoglimento e il viaggiatore all’ascolto, come quando si scorge, in un angolo, un’antica colonna circondata da un’inferriata. Anche su questo oggetto, nel corso dei secoli, si sono tramandate numerose leggende che hanno contribuito ad accrescere la devozione dei baresi e dei pellegrini per San Nicola. Si racconta che, dopo il Concilio di Nicea, Nicola si recò a Roma a rendere omaggio a papa Silvestro. Nella città capitolina, dinanzi alla casa in demolizione di una donna di facili costumi, ammirò una bella colonna e la sospinse nel Tevere da dove miracolosamente giunse sino al porto di Myra, sua città natale. Al suo ritorno da Roma la collocò nella cattedrale della sua città. Si narra che così come miracolosamente la colonna aveva raggiunto la città anatolica, nuovamente la si vide galleggiare nelle acque di Bari, quando le reliquie del Santo giunsero in città. Nessuno tuttavia riusciva a prenderla. La notte precedente la riposizione delle reliquie di San Nicola nella nuova chiesa a lui consacrata, i baresi udirono suonare le campane e accorsero nei pressi della basilica e videro un Santo vescovo che, con due angeli, poneva una colonna dal colore rosa a completamento dell’opera. (Cfr. A. Beatillo, Historia delle vita, miracoli, traslatione, e gloria dell’Illustrissimo confessore di Christo s.Nicolò il Magno, arcivescovo di Mira, patrone, e protettore della città di Bari)

Da allora, quella colonna, che si dice abbia viaggiato da Oriente a Occidente, esattamente come il culto di San Nicola, è diventata oggetto di venerazione per le popolazioni locali, per i pellegrini e in particolare per donne in età da marito.

Molte opere d’arte provenienti dalla Basilica sono oggi conservate nel Museo Nicolaiono che si trova nella città vecchia, poco distante dalla chiesa, in Strada Vanese 3.

The Church Of Vallisa

Bari Vecchia, Church of Vallisa, (photo by Gigi Scorcia, licensed under CC BY 2.0 )

<p style=”font-size: 0.9rem;font-style: italic;”><a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/7994827@N03/2847030066″>”in giro di domenica con 38°C all’ombra”</a><span>by <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/7994827@N03″>Gigi Scorcia</a></span> is licensed under <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” style=”margin-right: 5px;”>CC BY 2.0</a><a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=ccsearch&atype=html” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” style=”display: inline-block;white-space: none;opacity: .7;margin-top: 2px;margin-left: 3px;height: 22px !important;”><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc_icon.svg” /><img style=”height: inherit;margin-right: 3px;display: inline-block;” src=”https://search.creativecommons.org/static/img/cc-by_icon.svg” /></a></p>

The Church of Vallisa is a small Romanesque basilica, built by the communities of Ravellese and Amalfi merchants present in the city in the Middle Ages. The name Vallisa derives in fact from raveddise, that is the term in dialect with which the inhabitants of Bari called the merchants of Ravello. The three semicircular apses, which characterize the back of the church, overlook Piazza del Ferrarese.

The building, dating back to the 11th century, has its main entrance in Strada Vallisa, one of the small and characteristic alleys that intersect the historical center of Bari Vecchia. The facade is preceded by a deep portico with three arches. The interior has a simple basilica layout with three naves ending in as many small apses. This place, which is very different from how it should have been in the past, has retained an austere and mystical charm. Today it is a deconsecrated church used as a diocesan auditorium in which numerous musical events take place.