Canosa

A town in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, at an altitude of 105 metres, with approximately 31,000 inhabitants, Canosa lies on a slope on the right bank of the River Ofanto, at the north-western tip of the Murge. It is a commercial and agricultural centre, with small food-processing and building-materials industries, and a motorway junction for Naples, Bari and Bologna. Its ancient name was Canusium (Greek Κανύσιον). A Daunian city founded, according to legend, by Diomedes, it became Roman in 318 BC. It was renowned for its wool industry and its pottery production, attested by a great many pieces, often of large size, from the town's tombs and from necropolises throughout Puglia, dating from different periods: from the earliest, unglazed and with geometric decoration (the most characteristic being the funnel-shaped krater), to the so-called banded vases (vasi listati), decorated with parallel bands combining geometric and figurative motifs, to red-figure vases on a black ground in imitation of Greek ware, and finally the large white askoi adorned with figures modelled in relief. The medieval town grew up roughly on the site of ancient Canusium. Devastated by barbarian raids, it began to flourish again under the Lombards, but was destroyed once more by the Saracens in 840–70. Rebuilt around 965, it prospered in the Norman period (11th–12th centuries). Damaged by the dynastic wars of the Angevin era (14th–15th centuries), in 1502 it put up a heroic resistance alongside the Spanish against the French troops, who took it only after a long siege. In 1530 Charles V gave it to Philibert of Orange, but two years later granted it to Honoré Grimaldi, whose descendants sold it to Filippo Affaitati in 1643; in 1818 it was assigned to the Bishop of Andria. (Treccani)

Not to be missed is the long Roman Bridge, whose massive stone arches rest their foundations in the waters of the Ofanto; close to the bridge, also well worth a visit, is the Arch of Trajan. Moving into the historic centre, there is the Co-Cathedral of San Sabino (the end point of Stage 14 of the Cammino), with the adjoining Mausoleum of Bohemond of Hauteville, and underground Canosa, starting from the Lagrasta Hypogea.