WE COME FROM FOGGIA Our place in Europe The region of Puglia (Apulia) forms the southeast part of the peninsula, on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. It’s.

WE COME FROM

FOGGIA

Our place in Europe

• The region of Puglia (Apulia) forms the southeast part of the peninsula, on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. It’s the “heel of Italy”.

Our place in Italy

• This is the province of Foggia.

• The Gargano promontory ,its northeast part, represents the “spur” of Italy.

The Tavoliere

• Foggia is the largest and most important urban centre of the large plain known as the Tavoliere that lies in the northern part of Puglia, between the foothills of the Apennine mountains and the Adriatic sea. The area is called the Tavoliere or `chessboard' because of the characteristic patchwork of cornlands and grasslands

Looking east towards the sea

Looking east towards the sea

The Gargano coast

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Gargano – The town of Vieste

Gargano pine trees and golden beaches

Our economy

• agriculture, breeding, and fishing;• industries of different kinds • tourism Foggia is an important rail and road junction. Lying

in the heart of the fertile Apulian plain, it is the leading wheat market of southern Italy. The principal industries of the city are flour milling and the manufacture of pasta, cheese, olive oil and wine.

The Gargano promontory with its white villages, golden beaches and sunbathed landscape is an attraction for Italian and foreign tourists. A National Park was founded there in 1995.

Gargano’s National Park

The Park covers a total surface area of 121,118 hectares and includes most of the Gargano promontory and of the lower lying marshes and flatlands.

Cyclamens

A little bit of history

• Foggia is believed to have been founded by the inhabitants of Arpi (also called Argyrippa, Greek Argos Hippion), a Greek and Roman town that declined after the Second Punic War (3rd century BC); the ruins of ancient Arpi are a few miles north.

• It may have been named after local pits or cellars (Latin “foveae”) in which the inhabitants stored their grain.

• The Normans, after conquering the district from the Eastern empire, gave it its first importance.

• The Norman rule in southern Italy ended by surrendering the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Holy Roman (i.e. German) Emperor Henry VI of Swabia.

• Henry’s son, Frederick II, moved his court to Foggia. He declared it an imperial residence and built a palace. Foggia flourished under the Emperor who had an unconditioned love for this land and its landscape burned by the sun. He built castles, fortifications, amusement and hunting residences along the ways once covered by knights and warriors, traders and pilgrims.

• Then the power was taken by the Anjou House (1266-1442), and by the Sovereigns of Aragon (1442-1503). Later it was the time of the Spanish viceroy (1503-1707). In the end, after a brief Austrian domination, the Bourbons came to the throne of the Reign of Naples of which Foggia was a part.

• in 1860 it became part of the Kingdom of Italy.

The sheep tracks or “tratturi”

• Each year, since time immemorial, millions of sheep and thousands of shepherds moved in early autumn from the mountain pastures in Abruzzo to the wide plains of Apulia to come back in late spring, with the melting of snows.

• From 1447 to 1806 Foggia was the center for collection of the sheep tax on flocks migrating between the highlands in Abruzzo and the plains of Tavoliere.

• The transhumance economy, still functioning in the Middle Ages, was brought to a superior level of organisation by the Aragonese, who used their experience from the Spanish Mesta.

From 1447 to 1806 this building was the site

of the Customs House which registered the movement of all sheep from Abruzzi to Puglia and levied a tax, called “Fida”, on each animal which passed through the territory or was taken to the fair.

The transfer of the flocks started every year on the 15th of October and took place on the tracks which can be compared to a series of green grassy arteries. These tracks had standard measurements of 111.60 metres. They were marked by the passing and repassing and grazing and resting of thousands of beasts each year.

What it is like

The town was devastated in turn by the French in 1528, an earthquake in 1731 and Allied bombs during World War II (1943).

It has been rebuilt along modern lines. Today the city's streets are all reassuringly earthquake-proof, wide, a modern layout that is handsome enough, but you're going to have to search hard in between the tree-lined boulevards for what is left of the old town.

The cathedral

• The cathedral is an odd Romanesque-Baroque sandwich, the top part tacked on in the eighteenth century after the earthquake.

This Cathedral was built in Apulian

Romanic style under the reign of William II between 1172 and 1179 and was dedicated to Saint Mary of Fovea. Around the middle of the 17th century the church was renovated. The front was raised, a new cornice was added and the style changed into Baroque. In 1826 the Church was damaged by a bolt of lighting and had to undergo restoration. After the bombings of World War II the church underwent further changes.

The Arch of Frederick IIThis Norman styled arch is decorated with acanthus leaves. It lies on two eagles with spreadout wings, to represent theimperial coat of arms.Frederick II had this arch builtto make Foggia the officialImperial residence.The arch is the only remainingpart of Frederick’s Palatiumwhich was devastated by the Angioins and ensuing numerouswars.

Places of interest in the province

San Giovanni Rotondo

The newPadre Pio

Pilgrimage Churchby Renzo Piano

Monte Sant’Angelo

Here is the famous cavern inwhich there is the sanctuarydedicated to Saint MichaelArchangel.In the darkness of a veryancient cave, the Angel of theLord is said to have appearedwith his flaming sword and

leftHis footprint in the rock. Papi,Saints, monarchs, pilgrimscoming from far countries asScandinavia, came in order tovisit it.

Halloween was invented at Orsara di

Puglia

In the countryside of the Subappenine Dauno, the custom ofhollowing out pumpkins, carving them like skulls, and lightingthem from inside with candles has an ancient history.

Halloween in Orsara di Puglia

The old people of the region

remember that even theirgrandparents celebrated"fuuc acost", the Eve of AllSaints, decorating thestreets of the countrysidewith pumpkins, which arehere called "coccepriatorje" and lit bonfiremade from branches ofjuniper at the crossings andin the piazzas.

The world of the dead and the world of the living.

The crackling of the green juniper branches that burnamong the high flames, terrifiesthe souls of sinners thatrestlessly wander the back allies.The incandescent sparks rise

intothe air, luminous and delicate,and they console the souls in Purgatory, helping them to flytowards heaven. The old legendstell of the meeting on thisNovember night of the world of the dead and the world of theliving.

The inhabitants of Orsara

gather in groups to eattogether what they havecooked on the embers ofthe bonfire. But not allthe food gets consumed.Trays with sweets andwine are left at variousstreet corners so thattogether with the living,the souls of the deadcan refresh themselvesand silently wanderabout among the churches and the

palaces.

Dressed as witches, skeletons, and ghosts, the children of Orsara, are the real protagonists of this festival, and after supper they gather to eat sweets and listen to their grandparents tell scary stories about ghosts, magic places, and strange and inexplicable adventures.

The Procession of the“Fracchie” in San Marco

in LamisThe procession of the “Fracchie“, enormous

torches made of big trunks of trees sliced from one end up to half the tree is held on Good Friday in San Marco; the slices are then spread to form a radial pattern filled with some more wood. The conic bands held together with iron rings are laid down horizontally on a trolley. In the late afternoon, the fracchie are lit and dragged with long chains by groups of men along the main road.