Canosa
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Canosa di Puglia is a productive agricultural town in the district of Bari (population 32000), situated in the north-west side of Murge table-land, from which it dominates the valley of Ofanto and the so called Tavoliere delle Puglie, extending from Vulture Mountain to Gargano and to the Adriatic seaboard. Canosa has always been seen as the main archaelogical centre in Apulia and stands for one of the main far-sighted towns in the region. Vases and other valuables of Canosa are still kept in the most important museums and private collections in the world but, naturally, several tokens of her glorious past are scattered all over the present town and the territory round about.
History
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As a productive commercial town, famous for ceramic art, had been for some time influenced by the Hellenic culture which, during the 4th Century BC, gave it a Greek-polis town-planning model. The earliest contacts with the Empire date back to 318 BC, when the town signed an alliance treaty with Rome, and received the Romans after Hannibal's victory in 216 BC at Cannae, a small village near here. As a Roman Municipium since 88 BC and well-known for the manufacture of wool, the so called «Town of Emperors» had to undergo a town-planning intervention after the Roman style. The most important signs of the Roman itinery are: Via Traiana, probably built in 109 AD, and the water-cistern of Herod Attic dating back to 141. The Emperor Antoninus Pius turned the town into a Colony called Aurelia, Augusta, Pia, Canusium. At the end of the 3rd Century, the town became the provincial capital of «Apuliae et Calabriae». Since the 4th Century it would have been the seat of the most important diocese in Apulia. The «Town of Bishops», with a wide episcopal quarter and magnificent places of worship, was at the height of its power during St. Sabine's episcopacy (514–566). Seat of the chamberlain during the Longobard Age (between the 7th and the 8th Centuries), it was several times ravaged by Saracens in the following century. It regained importance between the 9th and the 11th Centuries under the Normans, because of Bohemund of Hauteville's interest in this town. But, after the Swabians, it began a decline that lasted until the 18th Century under many feudal overlords: Orsini del Balzo, Grimaldi di Monaco, Affaitati from Barletta, and Capece Minutolo from Naples.
External Links
More Info (http://www.campidiomedei.it)
Canosa should not be confused with Canossa in northern Italy. Canosa di Puglia