What to see in Bari, from the alleys of the old city to places of culture

Bari, the capital of Puglia and a lively Mediterranean port, is always worth a visit. "Old Bari" with its narrow streets where the voices and sounds of the local dialect are lost. What to do and see in Bari, in this guide.

Bari - Photo by Maria Bobrova
Bari - Photo by Maria Bobrova

Bari, capital of the Puglia and lively Mediterranean port, it is always worth a visit, a stroll through the elegant shops in via Sparano, a stop in the typical bars and restaurants, many of which are nestled in the characteristic old town of medieval origin, refurbished and relaunched already a few years. The people of Bari can take advantage of theBari Palese airport, located nearby. In the surrounding area a low cost parking at Bari airport for departures but also for those who want to leave the car and move around on foot.

San Sabino Cathedral in Bari - Photo by tomek999
San Sabino Cathedral in Bari – Photo by tomek999

Old Bari

Around Old Bari the most significant monuments are nestled, the pride and pride of the whole city: the imposing Norman-Swabian-Aragonese castle and the Cathedral of San Sabino, located right at the gates of the old city which presents itself with a picturesque tangle of alleys, small squares, courtyards, votive shrines and symbols against the evil eye and gossips. The sounds and voices of the local dialect echo in the alleys and become one with the surrounding environment. Here is the Basilica of San Nicola, patron saint of the people of Bari. It is here that the relics of the saint arrived from the East in 1807 and have been preserved ever since, even though the cathedral saw his consecration only in 1197. The interior and exterior of the Basilicata they are the product of the excellent Apulian Romanesque style.

Old Bari - Photo by Zenon Jiuszkiewlcz
Old Bari – Photo by Zenon Jiuszkiewlcz

Norman castle of Bari

Il Bari Castle, historically attributed to Ruggero the Norman, was erected in 1131; it stands on pre-existing housing structures from the Byzantine era. Frederick II of Swabia was responsible for the recovery of the castle damaged by William the Evil (1233) in the years between 1240 and 1156, using the previous layout and the surviving structure of the external walls and towers. During the Angevin period, at the behest of Charles I, important restoration works were carried out by the protomagisters Pietro d'Angincourt and Giovanni di Toul. In the 500th century, under Isabella of Aragon and her daughter Bona Sforza, the bastion wall was built and the central courtyard was arranged, with the double flight of stairs. In the nineteenth century the castle was used as a prison and later as a barracks.

Bari Castle - Photo by Filip Filipovic
Bari Castle – Photo by Filip Filipovic

The San Nicola Pier

A few steps away, behind the ruins of the Margaret Theatre, check the marina, meeting place for old and new sea dogs, with the San Nicola Pier and the famous “nderr to the lances“, the point where the fishing boats dock with their haul of seafood, which also supplies the restaurants and stalls of the nearby market. You could spend hours watching the fishermen "curling" the octopuses, beating them vigorously on the ground or with a sturdy wooden paddle, to tenderize the meat before cooking.

Via Sparano

Four steps through the right-angled streets of the Murat district lead to the heart of the commercial city: via Sparano, the most elegant street in Bari, with glittering shop windows, full of refined goods, but also with places full of history and culture, such as the Laterza bookshop, housed in the former premises of the glorious publishing house, with which he also collaborated Benedetto Croce, as a plaque on the building reminds us.

Crollalanza seafront and Petruzzelli Theatre

The Adriatic is always there, just a stone's throw away, witness to the daily rubbing on the Crollalanza seafront, architectural expression of the twenty years of fascism. It is the meeting point for a chat before and after dinner; while for diving and sunbathing, we rely on the golden and welcoming beaches of Giovinazzo, Polignano a Mare and Monopoli. Not far away is the Petruzzelli Theater, one of the largest in Italy, inaugurated in 1903. It was destroyed by fire in 1991 and returned to the city in 2009, entirely rebuilt exactly as it was.

Petruzzelli Theater in Bari - Photo by tomek999
Petruzzelli Theater in Bari – Photo by tomek999

Nicolaian Museum

Il Nicolaiano Museum of Bari, inaugurated on February 6, 2010, collects important objects related to Basilica of San Nicola. Paintings and sacred vestments, epigraphs, parchments and illuminated manuscripts fromArchive of the Basilica and also precious objects offered by popes, pilgrims and bishops such as enamels, coats of arms, reliquaries, chalices and silver from the Treasury. Of particular interest is the display of two significant finds discovered during the excavations carried out in the last decade in the Nicolaian Citadelunder the scientific direction of the Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Puglia. This is the Roman entablature block and the medieval pilgrimage sign (XNUMXth-XNUMXth century) depicting San Nicola, recovered respectively in the subsoil of Nicolaian Museum and Library of the Nicolaian Studies Center. The Nicolaiano Museum, which collects the most valuable pieces linked to the centuries-old story of the Basilica of San Nicola, is of great attraction for anyone interested in the Saint as well as in the civil, artistic and religious history of the city of Bari. Starting from antiquity, they span the Byzantine (876-1071), Norman (1071-1194), Swabian (1194-1266), Angevin (1266-1442), Aragonese (1442-1501), Viceregal (1551-1734), Bourbon (1734-1861) eras ) and post-unification. Epigraphs, scrolls and illuminated manuscripts (coming from the precious Archive of the Basilica), enamels, coats of arms, reliquaries, chalices and silver (coming from the Treasury), paintings and sacred vestments allow the visitor to come into direct contact with masterpieces and documents that have made the history of the Saint, the Basilica and the City.

Museum and Gallery of Medieval and Modern Art

La Bari Medieval and Modern Art Gallery was established on 12 July 1928. The heritage was established through the confluence of the nucleus of paintings already preserved in the Art gallery attached to the Provincial Archaeological Museum built in 1875, of other paintings given as a deposit by churches and convents in Puglia (the deposit of the Archbishop's Curia of Bari is particularly important), of works obtained in deposit by National Galleries of Napoli and Roma and others purchased by the same Provincial Administration of Bari. From its foundation to 1936, the Pinacoteca was housed in the Government Palace. Starting from 1936 it was transferred to Palace of the Province, erected according to the engineer's design Luigi Baffa, where it is still based. Since 2002 it has been named after the Apulian painter Corrado Giaquinto, born in Molfetta in 1703 and died in Naples in 1766, of which the Museum exhibits seven works.

Cathedral Museum (Diocesan)

On 7 June 1981 the archbishop of Bari Msgr. Mariano Magrassi erected the Diocesan Museum of Bari. The intent was inspired by the dictates of Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, so that "the sacred furnishings and precious works which are the ornament of the house of God are prevented from being alienated or dispersed". Initially, it had the function of deposit for the works of art and sacred furnishings of the abandoned churches of the ancient city of Bari and of the entire diocese. The Museum was officially inaugurated on 16 June 1983. On 12 September 1996 the first layout of the Treasury roomand Exultet I room and the art gallery. On 11 September 1998 the second lot was inaugurated, consisting of the construction of the lapidary, the Benedictional and Exultet II e III and the hall of sacred vestments. With the archbishop moving the Curia offices Francis Cacucci. the remaining surface of the first floor was also used as a museum.

Diocesan Museum of Bari
Diocesan Museum of Bari

9 Bari Civic Museum

In 1913, to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the Murat village, the Civic Administration organized and set up a "Historical Exhibition of the XNUMXth century". Following the notable success of this initiative, the Municipality decided to create a "Historical Museum” which was inaugurated on January 26, 1919, in some rooms attached to the Margaret Theatre. A "War Exhibition" was also organised, including the library of the De Gemmis brothers and some important collections of documents and weapons (including those of generals Bonomo and De Bernardis).

Il Museum, elected as a non-profit organization by Royal Decree of 4 March 1926, was increasingly enriched with interesting material, such as the archive and paintings of the Tanzi family. In the 40s the premises were requisitioned by Anglo-American troops to be used as a recreational club for the military and much of the material was lost. Only after several years was the Museum able to reopen to visitors in new rooms made available by the Municipal Administration. Since 1977 it has been housed in Strada Sagges, in an ancient building, whose structure is peculiar to medieval palatial houses.

10 De Romita Museum

Barese trained at the Royal Academy of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of Naples, de Romita he was professor of natural sciences at the Royal Technical and Nautical Institute of Bari. The museum represents the idea of ​​redeveloping and restoring a naturalistic collection of historical, cultural and scientific importance kept for over a century at the IISS Pitagora in Bari where the curator himself, the illustrious naturalist Prof. Vincenzo de Romita, created it at end of the 1800th century, gaining the reputation of being the father of Apulian ornithology and environmentalism. It is home to several sets of animals, including various species of birds that are not easy to land in southern Italy. Of reptiles, such as the Coluber leopardinus variety; of fish with a double-headed shark fetus. Finally, among insects, Ciccindela dilacerata appeared for the first time in the fauna of the Neapolitan provinces.

11 Bari Botanical Garden

The current Institute Bari Botanical Garden it was born in 1955, when the Faculty of Sciences was donated a villa on the outskirts of the city with adjoining agricultural land of 5.000 m1813. The first attempt to create a Botanical Garden in Bari dates back to August XNUMX; a decree of Gioacchino Murat sanctioned that each provincial capital had an Agricultural Society (later called Economic Society) with an adjoining vegetable garden for the experimentation and production of agricultural and ornamental plants. This botanical garden had a very short life, because the return of the Bourbons to the throne of Naples forced the newly founded Society to abandon the newly established headquarters and move to makeshift premises. In 1858, after long disputes, the Municipality of Bari granted 52 bushels of land near the coast, where the Economic Society building with adjoining vegetable garden was erected. This second attempt also failed due to the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Italy. Subsequently, as a result of the decree of Vittorio Emanuele II of 11 February 1886, the Society was definitively abolished. In 1964, a few years after the foundation of the Institute in 1955, the surface of the Garden was doubled. The new area was organized giving priority to the regional flora.

12 Simi Palace

Simi Palace, current seat of the Operational Center for Archeology of Bari, is a house from the Renaissance era which seals a dense and tight archaeological stratification both vertical and horizontal. The stratifications of walls that can be visited in the basement of the palace, built on the remains of the imperial era (XNUMXst century), refer to the early Middle Ages and the Romanesque era. The elegant spaces on the ground floor and upper floors are the result of the expansions and transformations of the original medieval nucleus into a historic residence, carried out between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries.

Palazzo Simi - Photo Italy for Movies

13 Museum of Earth Sciences

The Museum of Earth Sciences of the Department of Earth and Geoenvironmental Sciences of the University of Bari Aldo Moro has its foundations in the historical collections acquired by our University in the second half of the 50s. The collections were kept until 1985 in the University Building, subsequently transferred to the Department of Earth and Geo-Environmental Sciences at the Earth Sciences Building on the university campus in special rooms intended for museum display. Currently the Museum of Earth Sciences includes a Geopaleontological sector and a Mineralogical-Petrographic sector and as a whole has an area of ​​approximately 1000 mXNUMX.

14 Bari Zoology Museum

The Museum of the ''Lidia Liaci'' Department of Biology of the University of Bari Aldo Moro was founded in 1925. After some changes of location, in 1992 the Museum rooms were transferred to the university campus. Today, it is an exhibition structure of approximately 170 m2, divided into two rooms and houses just over a thousand zoological finds. Research, environmental protection, teaching and scientific dissemination activities are carried out there. The teaching activity is aimed at students of natural, biological and environmental sciences and consists of practical exercises in recognition and prospecting of preparations, screening of films and seminars. The dissemination activity, however, takes place through guided tours for school groups of all levels, screening of films, use of multimedia technologies and series of conferences on aspects of animal life and nature conservation. It is a member of the Interdepartmental Center for Services for Scientific Museology (CISMUS) and collaborates with numerous bodies for the study and protection of Apulian ecosystems.

15 Palazzo dell'Acquedotto Pugliese

Il Palace of the Aqueduct of Bari (Water Palace) was designed in 1924 by the engineer Cesare Brunetti and finished in 1932. The style expressly recalled in the construction of the building is 900s Cambellotti. The furnishings and decorations were made by Duilio Cambellotti which was inspired by the theme of water, making use of specialized companies for the production of furniture, stained glass windows and marble, terracotta and wrought iron decorations. In 2000 the building underwent some transformations, especially on the first floor, for the opening of a museum of the history of the AQP and a conference room.

16 Africa-Mozambique Ethnographic Museum of Bari

Il Ethnographic Museum Africa Mozambique it was inaugurated in 1980. Work began on its construction ever since the first Missionary Fathers arrived in Puglia in the 50s. After 1950, on various occasions, the Missionaries continued to come to Italy for holidays and rest, bringing numerous and different local handicraft objects from Africa. These artefacts, initially collected in a room of the Sanctuary of Santa Fara, later, with the creation of the museum, formed the central nucleus of the museum.

17 Overseas Fallen Shrine Museum

The Overseas Fallen Military Memorial, built by engineers of the Ministry of Defence, was inaugurated on 10 December 1967. The mortal remains of over 75.000 fallen soldiers are kept there, of which 45.000 are unknown, brought back to their homeland following the disposal of the war cemeteries , built in the overseas territories where Italian units operated during World War I and World War II (Balkans, North and East Africa). The large surrounding area, laid out as a park, hosts the open-air museum with war memorials and military relics. The Polish Military Cemetery of Casamassima, which houses the bodies of 431 Polish soldiers killed in World War II, depends on this shrine.

18 Other places to visit in Bari

Old Bari - Photo by Thea Smc
Old Bari – Photo by Thea Smc

19 In the surroundings of Bari: Torre Pelosa

In the hamlet Bari Sea Tower , around 1500, in order to defend the coast from the incursions of pirates and raiders who infested the Adriatic Sea, a watchtower was built, which still exists in the center of the main square. Since then the locality took the name of "Apellosa Tower" or "Lapillo Tower", later transformed into "Torre Pelosa", and became a small village of fishermen who lived mostly in trulli and natural caves and repaired their boats in the small port at the mouth of Lama Giotta.

20 What to eat in Bari

Bari dishes borrow from Apulian cuisine although there are some purely local ones. Among these certainly the barese tiella (rice, potatoes and mussels) but there is no shortage of other dishes to enjoy. In this regard we have written an article with some suggestions on what to eat and where in Bari.

Where and what to eat in Bari
Where and what to eat in Bari

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Information about Anna Bruno 113 Articles
Professional journalist, former reporter for "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno", she specializes in travel, food, music and technologies. She is co-founder of the communication and digital PR agency FullPress Agency, she is the managing director of FullTravel.it, a travel magazine and of "VerdeGusto", as well as two other magazines. She is the author of “Digital Travel” and “Digital Food”, the fourth and fifth books respectively, for Flaccovio Editore. Digital Travel & Food Specialist, she is a consultant and teacher in training courses and is the delegate for the SOUTH and Islands of the Italian Travel Press (ITP).

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