Barletta

"Barletta es una ciudad del sur de Italia, en la región de Apulia, provincia de Barletta-Andria-Trani. Tiene unos 95.000 habitantes y está situada a la orilla del mar Adriático, en el valle del río Ofanto. En su territorio se encuentra el sitio arqueológico de Canne della Battaglia, donde se desarrolló la batalla de Cannas. La ciudad es famosa por haber sido teatro del Desafío de Barletta (1503). En el casco antiguo de la ciudad, se puede visitar la cantina della disfida, lugar en el que se originó la famosa Disfida di Barletta. Barletta cuenta con numerosas iglesias de estilo románico, algunas de las cuales con influencias góticas. Las más interesantes son la Catedral, San Sepolcro y Sant'Andrea. En la ciudad hay también palacetes de estilo liberty y el interesante Palazzo della Marra de estilo barroco. Uno de los símbolos de la ciudad es la estatua de bronce de Eraclio, de 11 metros de altura; Arè, en dialecto barlettano."

"Barletta is a city and comune located in the north of Apulia in south eastern Italy. Its current population is around 94,000. Barletta is famous for the Colossus of Barletta, a bronze statue, representing a Roman Emperor (perhaps Theodosius II). This statue, called "Eraclio" by the inhabitants of Barletta, about 4 meters tall, is the biggest statue from the late Roman Empire (i.e. the Roman Empire after Constantine). According to a local folk story, Eraclio saved the city from a Saracen attack. Seeing the Saracen ships approaching Barletta's coast, Eraclio waited for them on the sea shore. Here Eraclio acted as if he was crying so the Saracens asked him why he was sad and Eraclio answered that he was sad because he was the smallest among Barletta's inhabitants and so everybody made fun of him. The Saracens thought that Barletta's inhabitants were all giants so left the coast, fearing to face them. In 1503 Barletta was the location of the disfida di Barletta ("Joust of Barletta"), a battle during which 13 Italian knights commanded by Ettore Fieramosca challenged and defeated an equal number of French knights who were at the time prisoners of war, in a joust held near Andria. This episode was documented in 1833 by Massimo d'Azeglio, who wrote the novel "Ettore Fieramosca o la Disfida di Barletta". In the book the author regards this episode as one of the earliest manifestations of Italian national pride. The city at the time was fairly loosely besieged by French forces, and occupied by a Spanish army under the command of Gonzalo de Cordoba the 'Gran Capitan'. Barletta is moreover the location of the archaeological site of the town of Canne della Battaglia (in Latin Cannae). Canne flourished in the Roman period and then after a series of debilitating Saracen attacks, was finally destroyed by the Normans and then abandoned in the early Middle Ages. Canne is also the location of the famous battle between Romans and the Carthaginians led by Hannibal. Barletta has one gold medal for military valour and another one for civil valour, for its resistance to an incursion of German Fallschirmjäger who destroyed the port in order to prevent its falling intact into the hands of the advancing British Eighth Army during World War II."