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Puglia the garden of Italy, a must for sun seekers and sightseers alike. |
This climate has made Puglia the garden of Italy producing millions of litres of olive oil (second highest in the world outside Spain), wine and vegetables of every description. For centuries Puglia has been a centre for agricultural development and production because of it's diverse terrain.
 From coastal lowlands with mile upon mile of olive groves, to the interior of lush green fields, vineyards and vegetable cultivation, to the high cliffs of the Gargano peninsular (a National Park instigated under the Kyoto treaty).
The Gargano
In ancient times only the northern part of the region was called Apulia (later Puglia); the southern peninsula was known as Calabria, a name later used to designate the "toe" of the Italian "boot". One of the richest in Italy for archeological findings, the region was settled from the 1st millennium BC by several Illyric Italic peoples. Later, the Greeks expanded until reaching the area of Taranto and the Salento. In the fifth and fourth centuries BC, the Greek settlement at Taras produced a distinctive style of pottery.
Puglia was an important area for the ancient Romans, who conquered it in the 4th century BC but also suffered a crushing defeat there in the Battle of Cannae against Hannibal.
However, after the Carthaginians left the region, the Romans captured
the ports of Brindisi and Taranto, and established dominion over the
region. During the Imperial Roman age Puglia was a flourishing area for
the production of grain and oil, becoming the most important exporter to
the Eastern Roman provinces.
Turkish map of Brindisi
After the fall of Rome, Puglia was held successively by the Goths, the Lombards and, from the 6th century onwards, the Byzantines. Bari became the capital of a province that extended to modern Basilicata, and was ruled by a Catepano (governor), hence the name Capitanata of the Barese neighbourhood. From 800 on, Saracen domination was intermittent, but Puglia was mostly under Byzantine authority until the 11th century, when the Normans conquered it with relative ease. Castel del Monte
Robert Guiscard set up the duchy of Apulia in 1059. After the Norman conquest of Sicily in the late 11th century, Palermo replaced Melfi (just west of present day Apulia) as the center of
Norman power, and Apulia became a mere province, first of the Kingdom of Sicily, then of the Kingdom of Naples. From the late 12th to early 13th centuries, Apulia was a favorite residence of the Hohenstaufen emperors, notably Fredrick II (who built the Castel del Monte above). After the fall of the latter's heir, Manfred, under the Angevine and Aragonese/Spanish domination Apulia became largely dominated by a small number of powerful landowners (Baroni). In 1734 there were the Battle of Bitonto, a Spanish victory over Austrian forces. The coast was occupied at times by the Turks and by the Venetians. The French also controlled the region in 1806-1815, resulting in the
abolition of feudalism and the reformation of the justice system. Liberation movements began to spread in the 1820s. In 1861, with the fall of Two Sicilies, the region joined Italy. Social and agrarian reforms that had proceeded slowly from the 19th century accelerated in the mid-20th century.
The characteristic Pulglian architecture of the 11th-13th centuries reflects Greek, Arab, Norman and Pisan influences. Universities are located in Bari, Lecce and Foggia "Now that I have traversed the regions of Old Italy as far as Metapontium, I must speak of those that border on them. And Iapygia borders on them. The Greeks call it Messapia, also, but the natives, dividing it into two parts, call one part (that about the Iapygian Cape) the country of the Salentini, and the other the country of the Calabri. Above these latter, on the north, are the Peucetii and also those people who in the Greek language are called Daunii, but the natives give the name Apulia to the whole country that comes after that of the Calabri, though some of them, particularly the Peucetii, are called Poedicli also."
Strabo (63/64 BC - ca. AD 24)
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