MANFREDONIA

5th­ 9th November 2013

“Walking” through Daunia

The Daunian civilization developed between the X and the IV century B.C. This populationinhabited Gargano. They used to worship natural elements such as Sun and Water. They wereknown as a peaceful people and mostly involved in agricultural and crafting activities and werealso great artists. Their culture was native. They produced clay pottery. At first they let drypottery under the sun, afterwards they started to bake it into kilns. They used to bury deads withtheir personal belongings. Decorated pottery was used for grave goods Simple pottery wasusually used in everyday life

MANFREDONIA

Manfredonia was founded by the Swabian King Manfredi, son of Federico II, in 1256.Unfortunately the grand plan for the city was not completed because King Manfredi diedduring the battle of Benevento in 1266.He was succeded by Charles of Anjou who visitedthe city several times. He reorganized the construction of the Castle, completed the citywalls and started Port Tower.The port became more and more important thanks to theintensifying traffic with other ports on the Adriatic Sea. Nowadays Manfredonia is knownas “the gateway to the Gargano” because it seems to welcome those who come to this area.It numbers a population of 57,385 inhabitants. Its climate is temperate.Manfredonia offers tothe visitors different historical and cultural attractions: the Cathedral, the church of SaintDomenico, the Chapel of the Magdalen and the Castle to mention the most important.(Thecharming Boccolicchio quarter in Via Maddalena, the oldest road of the town, hosts bars,restaurants and pizzerias. In the evening people promenade up and down Corso Manfredi soto continue the old tradition known as “struscio”).

THE CASTLE AND THE NATIONALARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

The Swabian King Manfredi began theconstruction of the Castle before he died, but itwas carried out by Angevines andAragoneses.The Castle shows a unique structure:high walls are surrounded by external lowerwalls and both have three circular towers at thecorner plus one quadrangular and one

pentagonal. It was subjected to numerous furtherworks of construction between the XIII and theXVI century. In 1968 the National ArcheologicalMuseum was put in the Castle.Now manyimportant artefacts are exhibited, but the mostimportant are the “Daunia Stones”, calcareoussepulchral stones, discovered in the area ofSiponto dating from the VII-VI century B.C.They were discovered by professor Silvio Ferri

in 1960 and they are made of local limestone.They were probably set into the ground becausetheir lower parts are undecorated. We supposethat they were funeral stones intended to sign thetombs of socially emerging groups (warriors,hunters, priestesses, etc.) with decorations anddrawings depicting daily life.

THE CATHEDRAL

The Angevin Cathedral, located on the site of thepresent-day church, started to be built on 7 thFebruary 1270 (the day dedicated to San LorenzoMaiorano, the Patron Saint of the town) wasfinished in 1274. Having been destroyed by theTurks in 1620, it rose again from the ruins of theancient temple in 1680 thanks to the archbishopOrsini, the future Pope Benedict XIII. The stuccodecorations that adorn the cupola intrados andthe vault of the nave were completed between1840 and 1850 according to the will of theArchbishop Vitangelo Salvemini. MonsignorAndrea Cesarano, Bishop of Manfredonia from1931 on, appointed the painter Natale Penatifrom Milan to paint the cycle of apparitions ofSt. Michael Archangel to the Bishop LorenzoMaiorano and the great picture titled “SanLorenzo’s entrance into Siponto”.

1) The Holy Table of Madonna of Siponto, atempera painting on wood, dates back to the 12th

century. It was damaged in a fire and brought toRome for restoration and blessed in the Vaticanby Pope Pius XI. Then it was solemnly crownedby Cardinal Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII.

2) The so called “Madonna Sipontina” is apainted sculpture carved from a single piece of

walnut wood. It is the representation of theVirgin Mary with her head turned towards theChild, who is blessing with his right hand. It issaid that the holy icon was brought to Siponto bya merchant ship coming from Constantinople tosave her from the havoc of the iconoclasts.

3) The statue of San Lorenzo Maiorano , PatronSaint of the town, is made by lime wood. On thebase of the statue there is the name of thesculptor and the date when it was craved, 1763.

4) The statue of a Christ tied to the column,finely carved in wood, belongs to the XVIcentury.

(The church of San Leonardo houses a largewooden crucifix discovered by chance in thesacristy under a pile of rubble, Christ has openedeyes and detached feet. )

S. DOMENICO - MADDALENA CHAPEL -CITY HALL

The Church of San Domenico was ordered in1294. After the devastation of the Turks in 1620,it was re-erected on the old construction. Thenew project reduced the Church to a single nave.The chapel, originally part of the old city walls,was discovered only in 1895. Inside the chapelfour precious 14th century frescos can be seen onthe walls: a partial model of the church of S.Domenico, the genealogical tree of the family ofDavid and the Deposition of Christ. Themonastery today is home to the Town Hall. Thefacade presents an open gallery with crossedvaults. A portico, interspaced by a series ofcolumns that support round arches, surrounds theinternal square with a central well.

SIPONTO

In the X century B. C. the ancient population of Daunia settled down in the area ofSiponto. It became a Roman colony and an important port town in the II century B.C..Siponto met its moment of greatest splendour between the IV an and V century A.D.when the first Paleo-Christian Basilica was built. The town was abandoned afterearthquakes in the 13th century. The Basilica is part of the archeological park ofSiponto, that included hypogea of Neolitic times and the foundations of the old citywalls. The Basilica is composed of two churches, the upper and the lower, that haveconserved their Romanic- Byzantine origin. The lower Church was built in 991. Theupper one, built in 1117, showed influence of Apulian art whit a singular squared base.It was partially destroyed in 1223 by an earthquake. Restoration work at the end of theXX century have brought it to its original splendour.

The sepulchral hypogea, dating back to the 5st and 6th centuries AD, are carved intothe tufaceous rocks. The monumental complex, consisting of nine hypogeal, includesgalleries and funeral chambers. Over the centuries these hypogeal have been used innumerous ways. First as pagan sepulchers, then as Christian ones. In the past one ofthe sepulchral areas, being private property, was used by shepherds as shelter foranimals.

MONTE SANT’ANGELO

Monte Sant’Angelo overlooks the Gulf of Manfredonia. The beginning of the history of the town isthe apparition of the Archangel Michael to the Archbishop St Lorenzo Maiorano in 490 A.D. Inconsequence of this apparition the suggestive sanctuary was built. Since the V century a medievalpilgrimage way linked Mont Saint Michel in France to the Sanctuary of the Archangel Michael.The sanctuary complex is composed of an octagonal bell tower built on an octagonal plantcontiguous to the latest monumental entrance and admission to the Angevin staircase. Thisstaircase leads – through the ‘’porta del Toro’’ – downstairs to the basilica. In the lapidary museumit is possible to see the striking crypts placed and the pattering level along with statues, fonts,columns and other finds coming from the sanctuary, from Pulsano and Santa Maria Maggiore.

The castle was built by the Normans (the tower of Giants was built by Robert the Guiscard),changed by the Swabian Federick II in the XII century and by Ferdinand from Aragona in the XVcentury. It reached notoriety for giving shelter to Bianca Lancia, bride “in articulo mortis” ofFederico II and the place where his three children Costanza, Violante and Manfredi were born. TheAngevins make of this castle a state prison.

San Giovanni Rotondo

Originally a medieval farmhouse, San Giovanni Rotondo has become today aglobal center of ecumenical pilgrimage. Since a Capuchin friar, Padre Pio fromPietrelcina, arrived there, a great number of pilgrims began to visit the Conventof the Capuchins. An hospital “House of relief from suffering” was carried outthanks to Padre Pio. He was proclaimed Saint in 2002, many years after hisdeath. The believers visit his tomb and the cell where he lived and died. At present they are received in a new church which is a masterpiece ofcontemporary architecture designed by Renzo Piano; it can hold 7,000faithfuls and it is shaped like a shall with vaults and stone arches, stained glasswindows, an altar and a cross by Arnaldo Pomodoro. Renzo Piano is one of the most important modern architect. His last project isThe Shard, the tallest European skyscraper in the center of London.

PULSANO

The Abbazia of Santa Maria di Pulsano, is a Catholic sanctuary on Gargano. It’s part of the municipality of Monte Sant'Angelo. It was built in 591on the ruins of an ancient temple. It was populated by a community of monks.The abbey is surrounded by various hermitages carved into the rock. Oftenthe monks used to access the hermitages with ropes or ladders. In the monks’diet, the bread was essential; it was usually baked on the spot, and in this case in theHermitage Mill, once a week, for all the monks who lived in the different Hermitages;thus we understand that the “Mill” and the “Church” where the first two essentialelements of the monastery.The bread was baked in little round shapes. The diet tothese hermit monks - very poor and austere - included also oil and – during solemn

feasts- wine. The monks had another drink, a hot drink, spiced with pepper, faucel andseads of fennel. It’s very important in the diet, above all during winter to fight theharsh weather. They ate wild herbs, carpers, and –to complete the nourishment-eatable rots and bitter bulbs, dug up by little hoes. The personal belongings of a monkwho lived in the Hermitage included a few tools, necessary for the daily life: a mat or astraw mattress to sleep, a bowl, a hatchet and a hoe necessary for the work in thefields, an oil lamp, to read the sacred books during the night. The monks meditatedin caves near the monasteries. The hermitage of St. John of Matera has anarched entrance. Here we can see the fresco of Madonna and Child between anangelic figure and a religious knelt with rosary in his hand.

BARLETTA

Barletta developed long before the Roman era, the derivation of its name 'Baal-El’ is fromPhoenician. Phoenicians first established a trading post and staging post. Its economy is based onthe manufacture of concrete and cement. It is famous for the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze statue,representing a Roman Emperor (perhaps Theodosius II). This statue, called by the inhabitants ofBarletta "Eraclio", about 4 meters tall, is the biggest statue from the late Roman Empire (i.e. theRoman Empire after Costantine). According to a local folk story, Eraclio saved the city from aSaracen attack. Seen the Sarcen's ships approaching the Barletta's coast, Eraclio walked and waitedfor them on the sea shore. Here Eraclio acted as if he was crying so the Saracens asked him why hewas sad and Eraclio answered that he was sad because he was the smallest among the Barletta'sinhabitants so everybody took joke of him. The Saracens thought that Barletta's inhabitants were allgiants so left the coast, fearing to face them.

In 1503 Barletta was the location of the disfida di Barletta ("Joust of Barletta"), a battle duringwhich 13 Italian knights commanded by Ettore Fieramosca challenged and defeated an equalnumber of French knights who were at the time prisoners of war. This episode as one of the earliestmanifestation of Italian national proudness.

The Castle is a structure initially erected in the 10th century by the Normans. During the Crusadeperiod, it was a used as a hostel for soldiers leaving for the Holy Land. It was upgraded andenlarged substantially under the reign of Frederick II between 1225 and 1228.. The castle was laterexpanded under the House of Anjou; then when Barletta became an important centre of Aragonese-Spanish control, the building was expanded again and the four massive bastions were added tocreate the present fortress form.

Palace of the Marra, an example of Baroque architecture outside Salento and near the home of themunicipal art gallery.

Giuseppe De Nittis was an Italian painter whose work merges the styles of Salon art andImpressionism. He was born in Barletta in 1846. He came into contact with some of theartists know as the Macchiaioli. In 1867 he moved to Paris and entered into a contract withthe art dealer Adolphe Goupil. Then he returned to Italy where he produced several views ofVesuvius. In 1872 he returned to Paris and achieved a success at the Salon of refused with

his painting “Che Freddo!”. In that same year he was invited to exhibit at the firstImpressionist exhibition, held at Nadar's. The invitation came from Edgar Degas. A trip toLondon resulted in a number of Impressionistic paintings. On a trip to Italy De Nittis tookup pastels, which were to be an important medium for him in his remaining years. In 1884,at age of 38, De Nittis died suddenly of a stroke at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. De Nittis worksare in many public collections, including the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the National Galleryin London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

TRANI

The city of Turenum appears for the first time in the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 13th-century copy ofan ancient Roman itinerary. The name, also spelled Tirenum, was that of the Greek hero Diomedes.The city was later occupied by the Lombards and the Byzantines. First certain news of an urbansettlement in Trani, however, trace back only to the 9th century. There was some economic progressduring the nineteenth century. At this time it is an important trading point for wines, fruits and grain.By the 12th century, Trani already housed one of the largest Jewish communities of SouthernItaly.The Scolanova Synagogue survives and, after many centuries as a church, has beenrededicated as a synagogue. The church of Sant'Anna is another medieval former synagogue. Tranihas lost its old city walls and bastions, but the 13th-century fort has been extensively restored as amuseum and it is open to the public. Some of the streets in and around the Ghetto area remainmuch as they were in the medieval period, and many of the houses display more or less of Normandecoration.

The main monument of Trani is the Cathedral, dedicated to St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, a Greek whodied in Trani in 1094 while on his way on pilgrimage to Rome, and some years later canonized byUrban II. It lies on a raised open site near the sea, and was consecrated, before its completion, in1143. It is a basilica with three apses, built in the characteristic white local limestone. It has also alarge crypt and a lofty tower, the latter erected in 1230-1239 by the architect whose name appearson the ambo in the cathedral of Bitonto, Nicolaus Sacerdos. It has an arch under it, being supportedpartly on the side wall of the church, and partly on a massive pillar. The arches of the Romanesqueportal are beautifully ornamented, in a manner suggestive of Arab influence; the bronze doors,executed by Barisanus of Trani in 1175, rank among the best of their period in Southern Italy. Thecapitals of the pillars in the crypt are fine examples of the Romanesque. The interior of the cathedral

has been widely modernized, but the crypt remains similar to the origins and was renownedrepository of relics.

Mario Cassanelli nasce nel 1961 aTrani, città nella quale vive edopera da sempre.

Dopo studi filosofici ed unalaurea in filosofia sullascrittura di Jorge Luis Borges,inizia a fine anni ottantal’attività di insegnante neilicei.

I suoi interessi si volgono,parallelamente al lavoro didocente, alla pratica dellascrittura poetica.

Partecipa a diversi concorsinazionali ed internazionali dipoesia: il “Nosside “ ed. 1988giungendo secondo; vince il primopremio nel 1999 nei due concorsi“Nebrodi” e “Vento a Tindari”.

La passione e frequentazionedelle culture e letteratureispano-americane lo hanno portatoa frequentare negli anni, autori,quali Astor Piazzolla, FernandoSavater, Miguel Benasayag, HectorBianciotti.

Nel 1986 traduce per le edizioni“Le parole gelate” un racconto

dello scrittore cileno modernistaJan Emar.

Astor Piazzolla, nel 1987,progetta di mettere in musica unsuo componimento poetico daltitolo “Tango in cinque figure”.

Nell’ambito delle varie edizionidel “Progetto lettura” tenutosi aTrani tra gli anni ottanta enovanta presenta i testi diautori quali: D. Delgiudice e S.Natoli.

Dal duemila ha inizio di suopercorso artistico e pittorico inparticolare.

Volge la propria attenzioneall’uso di materiali naturali(cortecce, legni, rocce) edartificiali (vetri, plastiche,carte, metalli) di scarto, direcupero e sostanzialmentelogorati dal tempo, dall’uso,dagli agenti atmosferici.

Tali materiali vengono assemblatie fissati, sorta di “retablo”onirico-simbolici, su tele daiforti cromatismi acrilici.

Il risultato è una decisa e avolte perturbante eco metaforicaed allusiva che le opere sono ingrado di produrre.

I suoi interventi esploranoessenzialmente quattro “aree”:temi e momenti dell’infanzia,figure della memoria mitologica,luoghi della geografia ispanica,volti ed opere della letteraturaparticolarmente amati.

Mario Cassanelli

was born in Trani in 1961, townwhere he lives and works. After adegree in Philosophy he startshis teaching activity in highschool. At the same time hepublishes his first poeticwritings. He takes part inseveral national andinternational competitions. Hispassion for foreign cultures andin particular for the Hispano-American literatures have put himin contact with well knownauthors as Astor Piazzolla,Fernando Savater, MiguelBenasayag, Hector Bianciotti. In1986 he translates a novel by the

Chilean modernist writer JanEmar.

Since 2000 he give free play tohis artistic pictorial passion.In his works he uses naturalsubstances and objects, (barks,woods, rocks) and artificial ones(glasses, plastics, papers,metals) all worn out by the timeand use.

His works explore fourfundamental themes: moments ofchildhood, figures ofmythological remembrances, placesof Hispano geography,countenances and works ofliterature.