Digital Library - POLYSEMi Portal

The Rock Civilization In Puglia

Motola, caves

Ravines, lame^[1], gorges, caves, crypts, and churches with frescoed rocky walls are the natural and artistic heritage protected in the Parco Regionale delle Gravine dell’Arco Ionico.

People have long thought that the caves of these ravines had been used during the Middle Ages only by hermits or Eastern monks who came to Puglia after the 8^th-century iconoclastic controversy. Actually, authoritative experts in various disciplines, from Geology to History, in particular starting from the hypotheses formulated by the historian Cosimo Damiano Fonseca, have shown that the rock churches or the so-called hermit crypts represented only one of the possible forms of living in a cave. Between the 10^th and the 15^th century, dwellings and entire hamlets were excavated from the sides of lame and ravines by local people who chose life in caves as a conscious alternative to urban life. Hence, the expression “rock civilization” was coined to define that singular way of life, which is different from but not inferior to life in towns and villages. In Puglia the habit to excavate from the soft limestone dates back to the Bronze Age, which many tombs found by the archaeologists belong to. Also during the classical period underground areas were still in use, showing that the attitude of living in a cave was deeply rooted in local people already before the birth of Christianity. Puglia boasts a very rich rupestrian heritage: Massafra’s churches are one of the best chapters of this fascinating story in the rock.

In particular, the Church of Candelora and the rupestrian complex attached to the Sanctuary of Madonna della Scala are worth noting.

The Church of Candelora looks onto the ravine of San Marco and is located within a private garden that may be reached following Via Canali. The Crypt has a basilica plan with three naves and, although collapse damaged the original entrance and part of the apse area, it keeps the false slopes and domes. The walls, along which various arches open, house very beautiful frescoes that date back to the 13^th and 14^th centuries. These paintings have both Greek and Latin inscriptions, showing the cultural variety of the region, which is a bridge between the Greek and Byzantine East and the Latin West. The fresco Vergine che conduce il Bambino is particularly evocative. Its iconography is very rare and seems to highlight the motherly tenderness of Maria, nearly walking outside the sacred space of the painting – her feet, before the floor lowered, touched the walking surface. She seems to give caring recommendations to her child, who brings an egg basket, interpreted in various ways. In Christian symbolism, the egg may refer to the Passion, as a metaphor of a sepulcher that creates life. The two smaller figures next to the Virgin represent the couple who commissioned the fresco.

isultati immagini per cripta della candelora Massafra

Crypt of Candelora, the fresco Vergine che conduce il Bambino

Also the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Scala, with its crypt, is worth visiting. Located on the outskirts of Massafra, along a deep and picturesque ravine, it can be reached through a spectacular Baroque style staircase.

Legend has it that in the place where the sanctuary lies today, two does were found venerating a Marian icon. The present shrine was built in the 18^th century on the original crypt, frequented since ancient times. The building, which today has the 18^th-century style and shape, houses a valuable 13^th-century fresco, which depicts a beautiful Madonna con Bambino.

Sanctuary of Madonna della Scala, Madonna con Bambino

T. N.: Depressions in the ground with gentle slopes, due to the karst processes in Puglia. ↑

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The Basilica Di San Nicola (Basilica Of Saint Nicholas)

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola

(foto di Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61405024)

The Basilica di san Nicola, commissioned by the Benedictine abbot Elias in 1089, was consecrated in 1197. The cultured abbot wanted to erect a building that combined various functions and meanings. It had to be a pilgrimage church, the main church of Bari people and a landmark for those who came from the sea and immediately faced the shape of its soaring towers.

Within the urban fabric, after walking alongside the castle and the cathedral, following today’s Via delle Crociate, and crossing the Arco angioino (the Angevin arch), we get to Piazza di San Nicola.

The basilica, the manifestation of Apulian Romanesque architecture par excellence, stands out in its austere and white tripartite façade, enlivened only by small blind arches in succession until the main portal tympanum and, on the upper register, by the light and dark effect of single-lancet and mullioned windows.

The solid volumes of the building can be clearly perceived thanks to the deep arches running along the side perimeter of the building.

The upper register is lightened on both sides by the elegant succession of six-light windows, which, as stone embroideries, let the light create interesting sculptural effects.

It is a totally homogeneous structure, similar to a fortress, which recalls the big Romanesque cathedrals in the North as for the façade flanked by two imposing towers, but encloses the domes and vaults volumes in rectilinear structures, in line with the Middle East construction techniques and as a tribute to a long Apulian tradition. In order to allow for the flow of pilgrims, who visited in large numbers Saint Nicholas’ relics, along the basilica perimeter there are five decorated portals with sculptures able to combine the beauty of shapes and the rich educational content. In the basilica sculptural decorations, all energy of the Apulian Romanesque style emerges: worlds inhabited by monstra, obtained directly from the Northern bestiaries, coexist with precise classical echoes enriched with clearly Islamic motifs, which are taken from cloth and valuable objects that reached Apulian coasts together with pilgrims and merchants.

In particular, the so-called portal of the lions is worth noting: it opens on the left side of the basilica, just under the first deep side arch. Along the archivolt, the epic of the Normans – the new Lords of Bari – is told through sculpture. With an extraordinarily successful ductus in terms of narration and propaganda, the elegant patterns of the Bayeux Tapestry seem to acquire new life and shapes in these sculptures, arrived in town to tell the stories of the Lords from the North to the new southern subjects.

Bayeux Tapestry, 11^th century, today at the Centre Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Bayeux: a detail

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, portal of the lions, 12^thcentury, a detail

On the contrary, a clearly more Mediterranean style connotes the sculptures of the two column-bearing oxen that ornate the prothyrum of the basilica main portal, made by an anonymous sculptor able to combine local classical tradition motifs with a fully Romance and European style.

The basilica location is not fortuitous but meets precise symbolic and political needs. The new palatine church had to rise where the Katepano Palace was located, in order to indicate that the patron Saint and the Norman Lords who had supported the church construction were about to take the place and role once occupied by the Byzantines; furthermore, the location close to the sea had to highlight the close relationship of the town with the Adriatic Sea. Therefore, the basilica apse area, facing the sea, is like a second façade, with a very large window decorated with carved animals. They are elephants and sphynxes, which, in addition to their symbolic meanings, refer to the East reached and left by pilgrims and merchants boarding in Bari under Saint Nicholas’ protection.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, sphinx carved in the apse window, a detail.

The church interior has a Latin cross plan with reduced transept wings and is divided into three naves by very big Oriental columns – decorated with carved capitals – that alternate with pillars. The transverse arches were built after the first construction stage instead.

In the chancel area, the travelers may admire the so-called Abbot Elias’ cathedra. The throne, intended for the abbot, is entirely carved out of marble by an artist able to combine the Byzantine elegance in the decorative elements with Romanesque expressionism connoting the telamons that support the throne, whose faces show the effort to bear the load and the burden of sin.

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, interior, Abbot Elias’ cathedra

isultati immagini per cattedra abate elia

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, interior, Abbot Elias’ cathedra, a detail

In this solemn Romanesque setting, the elegant art de cour, imported from Île-de-France by the Angevins, who succeeded to the Normans as leaders of the town, and the oriental purely Byzantine splendor of the crypt, full of sumptuous ornaments and icons, dialogue in an interesting contrast (M. S. Calò Mariani, L’immagine ed il culto di san Nicola a Bari e in Puglia).

The crypt may be accessed through a staircase in the aisle that leads the faithful to a spiritual dimension, thanks to the abundance of icons, lamps, precious metal ornaments, fabrics and embroideries, which contribute to make the view of Saint Nicholas’ relics, here kept, extremely evocative.

Bari, basilica di San Nicola, crypt.

(GNU Free Documentation License)

Bari, Basilica di San Nicola, crypt, the column in the grating.

The crypt is not only the site of the sacred, but also a place of narration and legend, where everything contributes to lead the faithful to meditation and the traveler to listening, as the ancient column surrounded by a grating in a corner. Various legends have been passed down about this object over the centuries and have contributed to increase Bari people’s and pilgrims’ devotion to Saint Nicholas. It is said that, after the Council of Nicaea, Nicholas went to Rome to pay tribute to Pope Sylvester. There, in front of a loose woman’s house about to be demolished, he saw a nice column and drove it into the Tiber, through which it miraculously reached Myra port. Back from Rome, he put it in the cathedral of his town. As it had miraculously reached the Anatolian city, it is said to be floating again in Bari’s waters, when the saint’s relics came to town. However, nobody was able to get it. The night before Saint Nicholas’ relics were placed in the new church that was consecrated to him, the inhabitants of Bari heard the bells ringing, rushed to the basilica and saw a holy bishop complete the work, placing a pink column with the help of two angels (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).

Since then, that column, which is said to have traveled from the East to the West, exactly as Saint Nicholas’ cult, has become an object of devotion on the part of local people, pilgrims and especially marriageable women.

A lot of artworks coming from the Basilica are now kept in the Museo Nicolaiano in the old town, located at 3 Strada Vanese not far from the church.

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The Cathedral Of Bari

THE CATHEDRAL OF BARI

Bari, Cathedral of San Sabino

(Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61448663)

The Cathedral of Bari, dedicated to Saint Sabinus and the Virgin Hodegetria, that is “she who points the way”, seems to hardly emerge from the noisy alleys of the old town, almost hidden in its heart and by the more famous and venerated Basilica di San Nicola. It is the bell tower – the only one that stands out among the low roofs of the village and has remained a distinctive point of reference in the urban skyline for centuries – that makes the church imposing.

Internally and on the tripartite white façade it is possible to read its history, which began in ancient times in the succorpo^[1], adorned with beautiful Early Christian mosaics, and unfolds over the centuries until the Baroque additions, visible in the crypt and the statues, with their emphasized theatricality, that enrich the main portal.

The building took on its current appearance between 1170 and 1178, when it was completely rebuilt, after having been razed to the ground by William I, called the Wicked, following the uprising of Bari people against the new Norman lords.

The façade is divided into three sections by pilaster strips, thus externally reflecting the inner division of the naves. The tops of the slopes have hanging arches that lie on shelves carved with snakes and animals, directly taken from the rich and creative Medieval bestiary.

A large rose window, decorated with statues of monsters, dragons, snakes and grotesque figures, dominates the upper register in line with the main portal. The apse area is not externally visible thanks to a rear façade that has a wonderful large window, considered as one the masterpieces of 12^th-century Romanesque sculpture. This wide scalloped opening, framed by a baldachin supported by hanging columns, is abundantly carved with eastern plant and animal motifs, including in particular a mysterious harpy.

Bari, Cathedral, rear façade, apse window.

Bari, Cathedral, rear façade, a detail of the apse window

The creative sculptural external Romanesque decoration is in contrast with the austere and mystical inner atmosphere, where the silence of the deep naves is enlivened only by the imposing effect created by the arcades, in counterpoint to the elegant three-lancet windows of the upper matronea.

Bari, Cathedral of San Sabino, interior.

(Porcullus Marek Postawka – Opera propria, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3526917)

The oldest core of the church is located five meters below the Cathedral level and dates back to the 6^th century. It is an Early Christian basilica that has maintained its ancient charm nearly intact. The area, formerly divided into three naves, now keeps the foundations of the original columns and a mosaic pavement ornate with geometric motifs and plant and animal elements. It is still possible to read an inscription that mentions a man named Timothy who paid for the floor mosaic decoration to honor a vow.

The crypt hosts the icon of the Virgin Hodegetria, known also as Madonna of Constantinople, an object of deep devotion. Tradition has it that the board came to Bari from Constantinople in the 8^th century, when during iconoclasm the Eastern Roman Emperor had ordered to destroy all the icons. Actually, it is a 16^th-century board that reproduces the Byzantine iconographic type of the Virgin enthroned who points to the Child thus showing the way to heaven, that is Christ.

Over the 18th century, the board was changed, and according to the style and aesthetics of that period, it was protected and covered with a sumptuous silver riza.

Icon of the Virgin Hodegetria

(Sailko – Opera propria, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58901057)

T. N.: The vast hypogeum church underneath the Cathedral. ↑

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The Castello Svevo (Norman-Swabian Castle)

The Castello Svevo of Bari, with its imposing and austere bulk, rises on the extreme edge of the old town, where once acted as the pivot of the ancient city walls.

Bari, Castello Svevo

(Carlo Dani – Opera propria, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77189036)

The castle of Bari contains at least two more castles, as in a Chinese box game. In fact, archaeological evidence has shown the presence of Roman defensive structures, on whose remains a Byzantine kastron and other dwellings were built. On this site, Roger II of Sicily ordered Saracen workers to erect the castle in 1130. The inhabitants of Bari have never loved this place, such a clear symbol of the royal power and, in fact, it has been demolished by the population over the centuries several times. When the Swabians arrived and in line with the encastellation policy promoted by Frederick II in the first half of the 13^th century, the Norman fortification was resumed, having being heavily damaged during the previous century popular uprisings. The imposing quadrilateral, with its trapezoidal plan, equipped with ashlared angular towers, was refined by single-lancet and mullioned windows and a wonderful Gothic and Frederick II’s style portal, carved with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, mythological motifs and clearly heraldic symbols inspired by imperial iconography. On the keystone, an eagle stands out and catches a small lion in its talons, a recurrent symbol in Frederick’s II architecture.

Also the vestibule, which can be accessed passing through the portal, dates back to the same age and aesthetic style. This area is covered with cross vaults, supported by columns and pilasters with finely sculpted capitals: a stone world, in which Gothic and Frederick II’s naturalism coexists with Islamic echoes. It is known that among the workers employed by the emperor there were many Arab artists, artisans and stonemasons. Just in the castle of Bari, a man called Ismael, who left his signature on one of the capitals, worked with the stonemasons Finarro di Canosa and Mele da Stignano, documenting the cultural melting pot promoted by the king.

The Angevins succeeded to the Swabians and decided to restore the northern part of the castle and the official rooms; nevertheless, the new lords have never stayed in this place, which was abandoned until the arrival of Isabella Sforza and her daughter Bona in 1524. They were the real ladies of the castle and made it a luxury Renaissance dwelling, surrounded by new city walls.

Inside the castle, arcades, stairs, state rooms, and frescoes embellished the austere fortress. After Bona Sforza’s death, the castle of Bari has no longer experienced glory times, but fell into ruin.

The Castello Svevo is not only a building of great historical and architectural value, but within its walls there is the echo of the stories related to a legendary meeting between Saint Francis and Frederick II.

The episode that tells how Emperor Frederick II subjected the poor man of Assisi to the lust of the flesh just in the rooms of the castle of Bari is not supported by any evidence.

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The Ospedale Dei Crociati (Crusaders’ Hospital)

Viale dei Crociati, Piazza Basilica 1, 70056 Molfetta (BA)

Built in the 11^th century and commissioned by Roger Borsa, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, to host the pilgrims who visited the sacred Christian places coming from the East and West, it preserves the signs of the passage of generations of travelers: there are crosses engraved on the stone walls and niches conceived to contain the hosts’ light luggage. It may be visited free: booking is required at 0039.080.3381369

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The Cathedral Of Molfetta

Molfetta, Cathedral of San Corrado

The church, built on the edge of the old town to house the remains of Saint Conrad, dead in Puglia in 1154, stands close to the spectacular quay, as a landmark for people reaching Puglia from the sea.

It is not clear when it was exactly erected, probably at the end of the 12^th century. The sacred building, in its uniform structure, embraces different architectural and decorative models: the longitudinal plan with aligned domes, very common in this region, combines harmoniously with a transalpine Norman style, as that adopted in the Basilica di San Nicola in Bari. The façade compact block is dominated by the imposing side bell towers, lightened by the effect of the mullioned windows through which the blue sky seems to pass.

The aligned domes in the Cathedral of Molfetta, externally concealed by pyramidal roofs – built in local stones, using the chiancarelle^[1] technique stand out for their monumental nature and the fascinating light effects, created by these big white prisms that come to life due to the sky and sea reflections.

Molfetta, Cathedral of San Corrado, side elevation.

(Dantes102 – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4744135)

The side walls are enlivened by a sequence of intersecting oriental style blind arches, which document the continuous relationships of the town with overseas lands.

In the interior, where Byzantine, Romanesque and Muslim elements harmoniously coexist, one has the feeling of being caught by the curvilinear space of the deep apse, the hemispheric domes above and vaults, which seem to enlarge the side walls creating a symphony of volumes that intersect and echo.

T. N.: Limestone slabs. ↑

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The Cathedral Of Canosa

In Late Antiquity, the most important town in Puglia was Canosa, which had achieved great distinction between 514 and 566, thanks to the works promoted by Bishop Sabinus, the dedicatee of the Cathedral that hosts his remains, miraculously reappeared in town after his death near Potenza, according to hagiographic legend.

Canosa, even during the Early Middle Ages, since it was located on the Via Appia-Traiana, was considered a very important strategic centre through which the Lombards, who wanted to contain the Byzantine influence, could control the South of Italy.

Read more “The Cathedral Of Canosa” →

Itineraries

The Pilgrim’s Tales

Canosa, Molfetta, Bari, Mottola, Corfu, Kassiopi

Itinerary – The Pilgrim’s Tales

In this itinerary the traveler is invited to ideally hold the pilgrim’s staff or, more secularly, to become a wayfarer, in order to go along the Apulian stretch of the road known as Via Francigena in the South or Via Sacra Longobardorum, rich in history, art and culture. Following the route of an old Roman consular road never completely abandoned, the Via Appia-Traiana, we will get to the region’s port towns, which have always been key embarkation points for pilgrims, Crusaders, Templars or merchants who wanted to reach the fabulous East over the Middle Ages. Following in their footsteps and guided by their stories and travel journals, we will finally head for the Ionian Islands, a nearly necessary step for people who once sailed towards or from the Holy Land or the rich eastern markets.

The itineraries that led from the West to overseas lands, in particular to Jerusalem, have created material, spiritual and cultural paths over time, a system of waterways and overland routes that crossed Europe and the Mediterranean, at the center of which there are just Puglia and the Ionian Islands, with their docks and holy sites.

The itinerary we are about to follow along the southern stretch of the Via Francigena is not only a journey of faith, but one of the main routes of Mediterranean culture; following it, we can discover how nature, history and artistic heritage contribute to make our journey not a single journey, but many, as the polished traveler, literary man and art historian Cesare Brandi wrote. Together with the pilgrims of the past, he will guide us to discover these lands.

We suggest the traveler start his journey in spring, as Medieval pilgrims did:

Quando pioggia d’aprile ha penetrata

l’aridità di marzo e impregnata

ogni radice e vena dell’umore

la cui virtù ravviva ogni foglia e fiore;

e in folto di brughiere e boschi spogli

Zeffiro ingemma teneri germogli

con mite soffio, e metà del corso

il sole nell’Ariete ha già percorso,

e quando gli uccelletti fan concerto

e tengono di notte l’occhio aperto,

così com’essi loro natura inclina,

[…] allor la gente viaggia pellegrina

e vanno a santuari, quei palmieri, in lidi anche remoti e forestieri […]

Geoffrey Chaucer, I racconti di Canterbury, Prologo

Puglia, a long strip of land nestled between the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea, with its 400 km of lands alternating extraordinarily diversified landscapes and architecture and 800 km of swimming coastline, is crossed by a network of roads that intersect the main Via Francigena’s route.

Our itinerary will start going along one of these roads, that leading travelers from Canosa to the Adriatic coastal road. We will reach the coast and stop off in Molfetta to proceed to Bari, a town known for Saint Nicholas’ sanctuary. Finally, before sailing for Greece, we will make a small detour, as Medieval pilgrims did when they got to the Apulian coast through the Via per compendium, which connected Taranto to Brindisi. This route, reported in the oldest itineraries, will allow us to visit the rock sanctuaries located along the ravines that connote this area.

Ancient pilgrims and modern travelers are impressed by the natural beauty of this land, more than by its artistic heritage and monuments; Cesare Brandi, during his pilgrimage in Puglia, describes it as follows:

La Puglia è un meraviglioso, austero, paese arcaico. L’unico dove si assiste ancora allo spettacolo incontaminato, e per interminabili distese, di una flora anteriore alla calata degli indeuropei: solo ulivi e viti, viti e ulivi, le piante che nel nome, tenacemente conservato e trasmesso, rivelano ancora di essere state trovate sul posto dagli invasori ariani (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia).

As the 20^th-century polished wayfarer, many Medieval pilgrims praised the Apulian landscape. Two educated Flemish noblemen, Giovanni and Anselmo Adorno, who landed in this region in the 15^thcentury coming back from the Holy Land, wrote in their fascinating travel journal that they had never seen such a fertile land or such beautiful olive groves:

La Puglia o Apulia […] credo che sia la più fertile al mondo per la produzione di olio e di grano. Produce in abbondanza anche dell’eccellente vino, […] ci sono boschi di ulivi, che è piacevole attraversare. È possibile altrove, come in Siria, in Barberia, vedere boschi di ulivi, tuttavia questi ci sono sembrati più piacevoli a guardarli e più grandi. (A. Adorno, Itinéraire d’Anselme Adorno en Terre Sainte)

The green of olive trees and vines and the gold of wheat will accompany us in our journey along the road that, between the end of the 11^th century and the beginning of the 12^th century, will become the preferred itinerary not only by pilgrims, but also by the Crusaders who had to sail for the Holy Land. One of these Crusaders was Prince Bohemond, who sincerely loved Puglia, in particular Canosa, the first stop of our itinerary.

An important town in Roman times, thanks to its proximity to the river Ofanto and its strategic location at the intersection between the roads coming from the Apennines and Puglia, it became the heart of Norman power and the seat of a prestigious diocese. Just in this town we can visit the mausoleum – whose shapes are inspired by the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and Islamic architecture – commissioned by Bohemond next to the Cathedral (The Cathedral of Canosa).

The Norman prince, son of Robert Guiscard, had participated in the occupation of Antioch becoming its ruler and spent an adventurous life, rich in love, kidnappings and conquests that made him stay in the East for many years before returning to Puglia.

(“File:Paolo Monti – Servizio fotografico (Canosa di Puglia, 1970) – BEIC 6358124.jpg” by Federico Leva (BEIC) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Cesare Brandi, whose literary and artistic pilgrimage stopped off in Canosa, may tell us something more about the prince and guide us to know this unusual 12^th-century monument with marble walls that are externally decorated with a light succession of blind arches. Rather than a funeral monument, it seems a precious casket or reliquary, as those the pilgrims took back home from the East.

Come s’arriva là davanti, e sembra un cofanetto d’avorio, si penserebbe piuttosto alla cappella privata o alla tomba di una possente gentildonna sul tipo di Galla Placidia o a un marabutto arabo, mai al ricettacolo del più straordinario personaggio della Prima Crociata, a quel colosso di nome e di fatto che fu Boemondo, il figlio di Roberto il Guiscardo. Orlando fra i Paladini, e, nella Prima Crociata, Goffredo di Buglione e Tancredi, sono riusciti a sopravvivere per merito della Poesia. A Boemondo che, al suo tempo, fu di tutti il più famoso, non è toccata uguale sorte […] Boemondo è mezzo eroe e mezzo farabutto, e come farabutto riesce ad innalzarsi fino all’eroe: resta sempre il figlio di quella malaugurata razza di avventurieri senza un soldo a cui aveva appartenuto suo padre. Se la leggenda o la poesia l’avessero passato al filtro, a quest’ora, il bello scrigno marmoreo sarebbe famoso al mondo, e il nome di Canosa suonerebbe almeno come quello di Roncisvalle […]. Orlando sembra d’averlo conosciuto come una persona morta presto e di cui tutti in famiglia dicevano bene, con Tancredi siamo andati a scuola[…]; questo Boemondo, cinico, traditore, insaziabile, ma nato capo con i capelli biondi, Boemondo non si arriva a vederlo. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

The traveler may visit the evocative small temple that keeps Bohemond’s remains according to legend; he may admire the beautiful double-leaf bronze door adorned with Islamic decorative motifs. On the left side, we may read part of an inscription celebrating the crusade prince: non hominem possum dicere, nolo deum. (I can neither call him man, nor God.)

Leave Bohemond and Canosa behind and proceed to Molfetta, which, as other Apulian coastal towns, was an important bridge between the East and West when its wide port became the landing place of crusade sailing ships and Venetian galleys, now replaced by a lively and colored fishing boat fleet that enlivens its life.

The Adriatic town is reflected in the Adriatic Sea of this picturesque port, with its walls:

vecchie mura che ancora cingono, ammansite e utilizzate a case, sopra a cui scorre una strada anulare, la città vecchia, minuscola e complicatissima città. Ancora più che a un labirinto o a un meandro, fa pensare d’essere entrati in una serratura: né solo per quella porta che può simulare il foro della chiave. Le straducole strettissime e alte seguono un itinerario proprio, e non hanno mai un punto d’arrivo preciso, una piazza, una chiesa. Si direbbe, se quelle ci sono, che la costeggiano, vi arrivano per la tangente: cunicoli scavati nella pietra tenera e chiara su cui arrivano i riflessi del mare. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

The pilgrims arriving here in the Middle Ages had two important devotional landmarks, which will become also the stages of our itinerary: the cathedral and the sanctuary of Madonna dei Martiri.

The Cathedral of San Corrado (The Cathedral Of Molfetta) stands out between the blue of the Adriatic Sea and the sky, along the Medieval walls and overlooking the sea. The saint, the dedicatee of the beautiful church in Molfetta, was a noble German pilgrim who had arrived in town from the Holy Land. His relics and the renown of his miracles increased both the flow of travelers seeking grace and Molfetta’s fame. Brandi writes:

[…] impossibile evitare il tono solenne per questo solennissimo monumento tagliato nella pietra a spigoli vivi come una pietra preziosa, estratto dall’Armenia si direbbe, e posato sulla sponda di un porticciolo vero e attivo, pieno di barche e bragozzi, che si carica e si scarica di pesce alle sue ore. […] I riflessi del mare (ndr) danzanti e capricciosi, rappresentano il fascino saltuario, ma indimenticabile della Cattedrale, a cui le varie fasi costruttive non riescono a incrinare una monumentalità così imponente e diretta da sembrare raggiunta tutta in una volta. E non lo è, perché le fasi restano indubbie, e i successivi colpi di timone: ma quale intelligenza, quale prescienza nel ricucire le parti diverse. Le tre cupole non sono meno splendide all’interno, quando il rivestimento prismatico, con angoli così aguzzi, le fa parere tende tartariche issate sul tetto della Cattedrale. Dopo San marco a Venezia, è forse la chiesa dagli spazi più misteriosi: quel senso aspirante o da incubatrice che hanno le tre cupole, la cui presenza è davvero inscindibile e talmente preparata dalle volte delle navate laterali, a mezza botte, rampanti, che sembrano spalle curve a sostenere il peso superiore o ben piuttosto il volo aereo di un volteggio. Così le cupole si issano scavalcando la chiesa. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

Once out of the church, the traveler cannot miss the experience of walking in the old town of this Adriatic city:

[…] e si vien presi nelle volute, nei giri viziosi delle viuzze, che sembrano come i fili, ma sempre lo stesso, di un gomitolo, ci si sente consegnati a uno spazio volubile, a un percorso interno alle cose, che mai ci consentirà una libera uscita, o, pur così tangente al mare, una veduta sul mare con borghese panchina. Il percorso diviene allora una segreta dimensione di spazio che non è più nostro: ed è in questo, che lo sviluppo delle vie diviene come un brancolare a mosca cieca. Ma un brancolare luminoso che la pietra tenera e bianca, d’un bianco leggermente livido e rosato, come la pelle di chi sta sempre vestito, restituisce con quel saltellio di luci marine, screziate dalle onde robuste e rovinose che stanno per inghiottirsi, un morso alla volta, questa meravigliosa città vecchia di Molfetta. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

After passing through the old town, on the other spur that delimits the mouth of the port, we can see the Sanctuary of Madonna dei Martiri with its hospital, where both the Crusaders and the pilgrims heading towards or coming back from the Holy Land were hosted and cured. Following the First Crusade, the South of Italy housed a number of hospitals – facilities used for the pilgrims’ rest – managed by Knights Hospitaller, Templars and Teutonic Knights.

The Molfetta sanctuary was erected in 1162 and, shortly after, the hospital was also built (The Ospedale Dei Crociati (Crusaders’ Hospital)). It was one of the few that remained almost intact. The traveler may still see its longitudinal plan structure, divided into three naves of the same-height by means of strong cruciform piers. The building has parallel barrel vaults, marked by transverse round arches. The area is lighted up by a series of single-lancet windows facing the sea.

Once left the Ospedale dei crociati (Crusaders’ Hospital), as the wayfarers of the past, we suggest visiting the Molfetta sanctuary of Madonna dei Martiri, where we can still admire the icon, considered miraculous and thaumaturgic, which according to legend came from the Holy Land, rescued by the Crusaders in 1188, in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem. It is the icon of Madonna dei Martiri (Our lady of the Martyrs), a considerably repainted board that represents the iconographic type of the tender Virgin: its dating is uncertain, but it was probably made in the 14^th century.

Pilgrims, always in search of a divine sign, could not remain indifferent to this place, therefore Molfetta, from being just a stage, became a place of pilgrimage in a short time. The renown of its sanctuary was connected to that of the icon as a miraculous object.

In his travel journal, the pilgrim Anselmo Adorno goes into a detailed description of the miracles made by the worshipped icon:

La Chiesa Nostra Signora dei Martiri è situata ad un miglio da Molfetta sul mare; è grande e frequentato luogo di culto. Sono sepolti numerosi corpi di martiri: perciò è chiamata Nostra Signora dei Martiri. Si trova isolata sul litorale con alcune case di pertinenza della medesima chiesa. I preti che amministrano la chiesa abitano nelle case vicine e danno accoglienza ai pellegrini in caso di bisogno. In essa c’è l’immagine di Nostra Signora, che compie molti miracoli, così come leggiamo in chiesa. Stando all’interno abbiamo ascoltato un prete di Barletta raccontare uno dei grandi miracoli compiuti sulla nave dove si trovava.

Questa nave era andata dispersa nella tempesta. Spinti dal padrone che promise la metà del suo bastimento a Nostra Signora dei Martiri, coloro che si trovavano a bordo e che speravano di salvarsi fecero un voto alla Vergine. Compiuto il voto, la Vergine apparve loro sulla prua della nave. Apparve anche un giudeo coperto di lebbra, che si mise ad adorarla, che chiedeva di essere liberato dalla malattia e dal pericolo del mare e si dichiarò subito cristiano. E grazie a tutto questo la nave giunse nel porto di Corfù. La Beata Vergine fece in questo luogo altri miracoli. Per questo motivo annualmente confluiscono molti pellegrini.

(A. Adorno, Itinéraire d’Anselme Adorno en Terre Sainte)

In the 15^th century, the sanctuary was very popular among pilgrims and, today as in the past, in such a crowded place one could be victim of petty or serious thefts, as Fra’ Mariano da Siena tells in 1431, coming back from his pilgrimage in the Holy Land and passing through Molfetta.

[…] e venimo a rinfrescarci a Morfetto.[…]

e visitammo S. Maria de’ Martiri , e mentre che noi eravamo in Chiesa , fu tolta la tasca con molte coselline, che valevano parecchi fiorini , a uno de’ nostri compagni . Questa Chiesa è cosa

di grande devozione […] (Mariano da Siena, Del viaggio in Terra Santa fatto e descritto da ser Mariano da Siena nel secolo XV)

Let’s leave Molfetta and, going forward along the Adriatic coastal road, head for Bari, considered by Medieval pilgrims not as a mere stage of their hard journey, but mainly the town that houses one of the most popular sanctuaries of Medieval Christianity. It is the Basilica di San Nicola (Basilica of Saint Nicholas), a church that assumes immense importance in the history of Bari’s civic identity. Although it is not the town cathedral but a pilgrimage church, it is definitely the dearest sacred building to Bari people and the most frequented building by pilgrims over the centuries.

Hence, the journey of the pilgrims arrived in Bari leads to the Basilica that keeps the remains of the saint who came from the sea. This place became the ideal intersection between the major waterways and overland routes leading to or coming from Jerusalem and Saint James of Compostella, the ultimate destinations of Medieval pilgrimage main routes.

Today’s and yesterday’s wayfarers may reach it only after entering the old town urban fabric.

Cesare Brandi writes:

Quasi a picco sul mare […]. Dal mare viene la sua vita e la sua morte, i commerci e le flotte piratesche dei Saraceni. Da questa apertura che deve essere al tempo stesso chiusura nasce il carattere asserragliato della città vecchia, le strade come cunicoli e le ampie oscure volte che le scavalcano. […]. Sembra che, prima delle strade, sia stata fatta una costruzione tutta di massello, e poi forata da strani, industri litofagi. […]. Bari vecchia è l’aggregato arabo, e quando non è Gerusalemme, è Damasco: le volte hanno il senso del mercato coperto, che sia Bazar o Suk. E sono anche le volte di un paese che vuole deviare e rompere i venti gelidi che vengono da Settentrione, e ripararsi dal sole che, d’estate, ossia otto mesi l’anno, calcina gli occhi e le pietre. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

In this maze of streets, after running along the castle (The Castello Svevo (Norman-Swabian Castle)) and the cathedral (The Cathedral Of Bari), and having followed the present Via delle Crociate, we get to Via Palazzo di città, once called Ruga Francigena, namely Francigena way. This road, which crosses the old town and finally leads to the square of the Basilica di San Nicola (The Basilica Di San Nicola (Basilica Of Saint Nicholas)), in its name, reminds us that we are following exactly the stretch of the old European pilgrimage route that ran through Bari, in order to allow the pilgrims to visit Saint Nicholas’ sanctuary, worship his relics, and get blessing to continue the rest of their journey safely.

The pilgrims of the past, along with us, often tried to make their arrival in Bari coincide with the day dedicated to the patron saint, namely 8 May. Through their writings, we may evocatively travel backwards in time to discover habits and customs of this religious and popular festival that still attracts pilgrims and tourists.

This journey backwards in the devotional imagination starts in the Basilica crypt, accessed through a staircase in the aisle which leads the faithful to an Oriental and Byzantine mystical dimension, thanks to the abundance of icons, lamps, precious metal ornaments, fabrics and embroideries that contribute to make the view of Saint Nicholas’ relics – here kept – extremely evocative. Anselmo Adorno describes them in his journal:

Le spoglie riposano in un’arca di marmo sotto il grande altare della cripta. La parte anteriore dell’altare è istoriata con immagini sbalzate in argento. Sempre sul fronte dell’altare c’è una porticina attraverso cui, da un foro che penetra all’interno del monumento, ove una lampada accesa pende da una catena d’argento, si distinguono le reliquie di S. Nicola. Da esse dicono che scaturisca un olio santo, ovvero un liquido con cui vengono unti occhi e fronti delle persone nelle festività solenni, così come fu nel tempo in cui noi fummo a Bari, cioè nel giorno di S. Nicola.

(A. Adorno, Itinéraire d’Anselme Adorno en Terre Sainte)

Many pilgrims of the past visited the sanctuary to get a miraculous liquid, called manna, that was said to exude from the saint’s body.

Continuous flows of pilgrims, coming from both the East and West, have kept on crowding the tomb of the Bari saint over the centuries, as Emile Bertaux writes at the end of the nineteenth century:

[…] sin dai primi giorni di maggio, la città vecchia, che con i suoi vicoli tortuosi stringe le mura della basilica fortificata dai re angioini, si agita e trabocca. I visitatori hanno preso d’assalto la chiesa; si sono stabiliti nelle navate laterali e persino nelle cappelle; sono lì accampati, dormono, mangiano. […] Così scendono fin giù nella cripta, con la testa che batte sugli scalini, e quando si rialzano vacillanti, vedono al di sopra della buia folla, tra le colonne annerite, la volta rivestita d’argento, tutta rutilante di luci, e il massiccio altare d’argento, dove il corpo di San Nicola, nell’ombra, stilla una miracolosa manna. […]. È necessario che ogni famiglia porti via la sua bottiglia piena del misterioso liquido che stilla dalle ossa di San Nicola come da fonte inesauribile. (E. Bertaux, Sur les chemins des pèlerins et des émigrantes, 1897)

The town still dresses up for three days, 7, 8 and 9 May, and commits entirely to the saint’s celebrations, between the sacred and the profane. We suggest the traveler who arrived here through this itinerary ideally join the festival and plan his trip so as to enter the joyful atmosphere that pervades Bari during Saint Nicholas’ days, as the ‘Apulian pilgrim’ Cesare Brandi did. He introduces us into the merry and chaotic folk dimension that prevails in the town with his words:

[…] per i festosi viali di Bari, archi di lampadine a non finire, che rientravano l’uno nell’altro, come cerchi concentrici di un tiro a segno. La strada, fitta di popolo a contatto di gomito – e del resto – sembrava ridotta a un palcoscenico in lieve pendenza. […]

Gli archi luminosi non erano le sole luci, sotto le stelle compiacenti, della vigilia della festa: non potevano mancare i fuochi, quest’altro costoso lusso del Meridione, dei poveri che si danno allo scialo. E in quanto allo scialo, per San Nicola, i Baresi si sprecano. […] Si comincia, appunto, dalla sera della vigilia, quando una tremolante caravella a ruote, fra nubi di fumo e modeste crepitanti torce di fuoco greco, con un’immagine di San Nicola a bordo e alcuni vecchietti in costume da Cena delle beffe, passa tra la folla della città fino a trascorrere sotto gli archi luminosi. Questa rievocazione del famigerato furto perpetrato dai Baresi a Mira, in gara nobilissima coi Veneziani, è dunque una specie di Sacra Rappresentazione, senza preti e senza canti, dove la voce è messa solo dai botti dei fuochi d’artificio, […]. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

The celebrations will continue on the following day, 8 May: «quando – writes Brandi – il Santo va in mare, sotto un sole, che, se anche è maggio, è già piena estate, in un cielo che è chiaro come in Africa» on a fishing boat, which recalls the link between the town and the sea and the arrival, by the same sea, of Saint Nicholas’ relics, smuggled in the 11^th century in Myra (Turkey) by a group of sailors from Bari.

Brandi says:

Il Santo va in mare, vestito, sulla statua d’argento, di paramenti d’oro e circondato, invece che da torce e flabelli, da mazzi di fiori nuziali – garofani bianchi e calle – montati su lunghe aste d’argento, come quelle che reggono i baldacchini. Il Vescovo in persona, che comanda la processione, getta allora un’ampolla con la manna di San Nicola. […] Il mare, allora, questo eterno ricetto materno, la Teti antica e dell’inconscio, alla fecondazione nuziale risponde con l’urlo subitaneo e lacerante, discorde fino a raggiungere il più implacabile salasso elettrico, di non so quante sirene, dalle navicelle, dai trabiccoli, dai motopescherecci, raccolti attorno al motopeschereccio del Santo, come le api intorno all’Ape regina. […] Ora la fecondazione è avvenuta, il santo si riposa, la gente dalla terra esulta, perché il patto col mare, la parentela indissolubile, è per il bene della terra. […] Il pubblico straboccante, meravigliosamente nero e rosso, brulicava sul lungomare, fitto come puntini di un quadro di Seurat. Finché il Santo rimane in mare, il brulichio non cesserà. (C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

The following day Saint Nicholas’ statue returns to its beautiful Romanesque Basilica: the traveler may decide whether to embark soon, under the saint’s protection, or continue his journey across Puglia for a while, before catching one of the ferries that regularly connect the Apulian county seat to the Greek islands.

Many pilgrims of the past chose to embark from Brindisi, as an alternative, and reached the town of Upper Salento following the route of the Via Appia-Antica; in particular, the stretch of road connecting Taranto to Brindisi was frequently taken all over the Middle Ages.

In the area surrounding this road, it is possible to admire the cave Apulian environment (The Rock Civilization In Puglia): entire hamlets, shrines, and hermitages carved out of rock will guide the visitor to enter a mystical dimension, connoted by a delicate charm, which is totally different from that of the imposing Romanesque basilicas we left along the coast. A dense network of roads winds between Massafra, Mottola and Gravina, where the pilgrim’s route meets the ancient transhumance path.

Our literary guide, Cesare Brandi, looking for rock crypts – as we do – reaches Mottola, a town in the province of Taranto, located as he says:

su un’altura che non è un’altura, ma per le Puglie lo diventa: e si vede di lassù uno dei paesi più armoniosi che vi siano, con in fondo il mare. Armoniosa è infatti la discesa degli ulivi corvini, densi come gomitoli, nel pullulare del primo verde delle viti […] armoniosi grani fitti, arditi, rigidissimi, come capelli a spazzola, accanto ai ricciuti boccoli di verde opaco e gagliardo delle fave. Non mi stancavo di guardarlo, quel paese, così scoperto e largo e disteso, che il mare quasi pareva appena l’orice di tanta morbida bellezza.

Invece bisognò staccarsi dal panorama e andare in cerca delle cripte. Naturalmente qui ce n’era un visibilio, volendo: ma a me interessava soprattutto quella di San Nicola, e speravo che trovandosi in aperta campagna, bisognasse cercarsela a piedi […]. Non fui deluso. A un certo punto si arrivò all’antico convento ridotto ad abbazia, e lì la strada campestre finiva.

(C. Brandi, Pellegrino di Puglia)

The rock church of San Nicola, one of the nicest among the «Mirabili Grotte di Dio» (Charles Diehl), was venerated for centuries not only by the town inhabitants, but also by Crusaders and pilgrims – whose steps we are following in – who reached Taranto and Brindisi to sail for the Holy Land.

The church is on the edge of a small ravine and can be accessed through stairs carved out of rock.

This underground sanctuary has a cruciform plan inscribed in a quadrangular hall, divided into three naves. They are separated only by two massive pillars, according to a structure that could be also found in Syria from the 6^th century. The chancel of the church, called bema, isolated from the rest of the interior by means of an iconostasis, is divided into three different cells, each with its own altar. The interior, almost entirely frescoed, has one of the most interesting pictorial cycles in Puglia in terms of quality and preservation, dating back to the period between the 11^th and the 13^th century. This place has been defined as the Sistine Chapel of the Southern Italy rock civilization.

Our traveler, after this detour, should proceed and head for the Ionian Islands, a nearly necessary step for people who sailed towards the East or the Holy Land in the Middle Ages.

The time of leaving was not pleasant for all travelers, especially for armed pilgrims, namely the Crusaders, who left the safe Apulian coasts. The poet Tannhäuser, an unwilling Crusader of Frederick II’s retinue in 1228, regrets the joy he is leaving behind when abandoning the beautiful land of Puglia in a lyric poem. His verses allow us to go back in time and imagine how enjoyable the life of dames and knights could be in the imperial palaces of the region. In the context of the Apulian landscape, romantic meetings, jousts and hunts gladdened the days of those who might stay, unlike the poet.

Beato colui che ora può cacciare con il falcone sui campi di Puglia! […]

alcuni vanno alle fonti, gli altri cavalcano guardando il paesaggio ‒ questa gioia mi è tolta ‒ quelli caracollano accanto alle dame […]

io non caccio all'arco con i cani, io non uccello con i falconi, […], e nessuno mi può rimproverare di portare corone di rose […]

neanche mi si può attendere dove cresce il verde trifoglio, né cercare nei giardini accanto alle belle giovani […]

io fluttuo sul mare.

(Tannhäuser, in A. Martellotti, Il viaggio controvoglia del crociato Tannhäuser)

Corfu, Kassiopi

(Bejo, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3086242)

Sailing from the Adriatic coast, it is possible to reach Ithaca, Cephalonia and Corfu, where the threatening channel of Butrint, with its dangerous streams, was waiting for those who wanted to continue their journey. When pilgrims or merchants passed through this area, it was advisable for various reasons to stop at the natural shelter of Kassiopi bay, in the northern part of Corfu island.

Today the traveler may visit this pleasant fishing village, which dates back to Roman times and may learn its history, discovering its literary imagination described in the pilgrims’ diaries that tell about dragons, magic lamps, hermitages, chapels and miraculous icons, as the one vaguely recalled in the small church of Virgin Kassopitra, who protects sailors and travelers.

Medieval pilgrims tell that Kassiopi was once a strong town, now totally desert due to the deadly exhalations of a dragon that raged against the people, formerly committed to sodomy. Sailors and pilgrims started to regularly frequent a small chapel always lighted up by a lamp. The lamp miraculous oil was said to cure any fever. Overtime it was told that this chapel hosted also a miraculous icon, known as Virgin Kassopitra, portraying the Virgin painted by Luke the Evangelist. (M. Bacci, Portolano sacro. Santuari e immagini sacre lungo le rotte di navigazione del mediterraneo tra tardo medioevo e prima età moderna).

The chapel, so renowned in the past, was seriously damaged during the 16^th century, due to the Berber raids, but was promptly rebuilt by the Venetians in 1590. The icon deemed miraculous has now disappeared, but has been replaced by a 17^th-century votive icon that reproduces it and is still an object of devotion.

It is also mentioned in the travel journal of Marquess Nicolò d’Este travelling to the Holy Sepulcher, written by his faithful chancellor, Luchino dal Campo.

He wrote:

Et andando il Signore al suo viaggio, la sira andò alla isola di Corfù, in uno porto chiamato Nostra Dona da Casopoli. E qui, gittato ferro e la barcha all’acqua, andò in terra a la giexia di Nostra Donna , ove li è una lampada denanti alla sua figura, la quale sempre arde e sempre sta piena di olio, ní mai se ne mette guzzo di olio; et fu dato de un certo legno bagnato del dicto olio a tucta la compagnia da uno calogiero che sta lì, e disse esser bono de guarir ogni febre. E, visitato questa figura la qual fa miracoli, andorono a vedere uno castello chiamato Casopoli, molto bello ma disabitato per uno serpente il quale habitava lì e avelenava tucto il paexe. (Luchino dal Campo, Viaggio del Marchese Nicolò d’Este al Santo Sepolcro, 1413)

The castle, mentioned by Medieval pilgrims and travelers, can still be visited. From the main road of the village another road starts and winds up to a hill overlooking the bay. On top we can find the ruins of the original Byzantine fortress, surrounded by plants. The castle was conquered in the 11^th century by a man we have already met in our itinerary in Canosa, Prince Bohemond. The Norman dominion over Corfu did not last long and the castle was controlled by the Byzantine emperors until the arrival of the Angevins in 1266. Finally, the castle was destroyed by the Venetians in the 14^th century, when they took control of the island. Only at the beginning of the 18^th century they decided to rebuild the castle in order to limit the Ottoman raids.

Our pilgrimage searching for beauty and discovering Medieval monuments, stories and legends, closely linked to the place identity, ends on this island and on this fortress that allows us to overlook the Strait of Corfu, aware that the end of this journey may become the start of another itinerary or another story.

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Lorentzos Mavilis

Author: Mavilis, Lorentzos Mavilis

Date of Birth: 1860, Ithaca

Gender: Male

Biography: Lorenzos Mavilis was born on September 6, 1860 in Ithaca, where his father, Pavlos Mavilis, of Spanish descent, served as a judge. His mother, Ioanna Soufi, was a niece of Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias. Mavilis finished his high school studies in Corfu and studied for a year (1877-1878) at the University of Athens School of Philosophy. Read more “Lorentzos Mavilis” →

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Aristotelis Valaoritis

Author: Valaoritis, Aristotelis Valaoritis

Date of Birth: 1824, Lefkada

Gender: Male

Biography: Aristotelis Valaoritis was born in Lefkada in 1824, the first-born son of Senator John Valaoritis and of the Kefallinian noblewoman Anastasia of the Tipaldus-Forrest family. He lived in Lefkada until his childhood in 1838, when he settled in Corfu to study at the Ionian Academy as an intern with Hellenist I. Economidis. Read more “Aristotelis Valaoritis” →