Foggia (Fògge in the Foggia dialect) is an Italian town of 149
210 inhabitants, capital of the homonymous province, in Puglia.
Located in the center of the Tavoliere, it developed after the
reclamation work. It is home to the International Fair of
Agriculture and Zootechnics.
It is the seat of industries
operating in various sectors: food, textile, chemical, mechanical
and production of building materials, it is also the seat of the
metropolitan archiepiscopal, as well as (since 1999) an autonomous
university seat.
Despite the earthquake of 1731 and the
bombings that hit the city during the Second World War, it boasts a
discreet historic center.
Although Foggia has been damaged several times by devastating
earthquakes and bombings of the Second World War, there are numerous
historical and architectural testimonies of its past.
The largest
city monument is the Cathedral, erected in the secolo It preserves on
the outside a good part of the Romanesque prospects in squared and
carved stone, with the cornice populated with sculptures and on the left
side the rich portal of San Martino. Medieval is also the crypt with
capitals. In the Baroque age the temple was renovated globally, on the
outside changing the upper part of the elevations and raising the stone
bell tower with a spire crowning and inside reshaping in discreet Rococo
style the architectural system, a Latin cross with cupola dome decorated
with sober stucco ornaments. In the relatively spacious hall stands the
imposing eighteenth-century high altar in polychrome marble with two
large marble angels carved and signed by Giuseppe Sanmartino. On the
counterfacade, moreover, stands a large canvas by Francesco De Mura,
while other precious Neapolitan altars of the eighteenth century
decorate the chapels (two of which house wooden statues by Giacomo
Colombo). The main chapel of the Iconavetere is located next to the
presbytery, with a bronze gate and a rich marble altar of the late
seventeenth century.
In the urban area emerge several places of
historical and artistic interest. These include the late Baroque church
of Jesus and Mary, located in Piazza Umberto Giordano, Palazzo Dogana in
Piazza Settembre Here stood one of the Imperial palaces of the Swabian
Emperor who, as we read on the epigraph of the arch, considered Foggia
"royal and preferred imperial seat". In the historic center of the city
it is possible to visit the underground Foggia, urban hypogea dating
back to the Middle Ages, in one of which (hypogeum of San Domenico),
thanks to archaeological excavations, the legendary Imperial Palace of
Frederick II is found. Other testimonies of the past are the well of
Frederick II, located in the homonymous square, and the epitaph, symbol
of transhumance, the church of San Lorenzo in Carminiano on the road of
the New Willow and, in the area at the gates of the city where the
ancient Dauna city of Arpi stood, the hypogeum of the Medusa and the
necropolis. The archaeological park of Passo di Corvo and the
excavations in place in the Villa comunale, testify to the presence of
man in the Tavoliere since the Neolithic.
There are many
churches, in Baroque and Rococo style, scattered throughout the
territory of ancient Foggia; among these stand out the
seventeenth-century church of the Dead located in Piazza Purgatorio,
restored, and the church of Our Lady of Sorrows, located in the
homonymous square which is accessed through an arch that takes its name.
Leaving the historic center, in front of the Three Arches in Piazza
Piano delle Croci, stands the church of San Giovanni Battista with its
sober baroque facade. Next to these also stands the vast villa comunale
with austere neoclassical propylaeum, which represents the second public
garden in central and southern Italy in size and was built in the secolo
The Palazzo delle Poste is in Libert style and the Fontana del Sele,
located in Piazza Cavour, was inaugurated on March 21, 1924.
In
the surroundings of the urban center there are Borgo Segezia, the
sanctuary of the Incoronata, the fortress of Ponte Albanito and
Arpinova, important religious, historical and archaeological sites.
The churches of Foggia are fifty-one and their history is intertwined
with the religious, social and artistic history of the city. Among them
are the cathedral of Foggia, the church of the Crosses or Monte Calvario
(national monument), the church of San Tommaso (the oldest in the city)
and church of San Giovanni Battista. The church of the Blessed Virgin
Mary Mother of God Coronata, near Borgo Coronata, a hamlet of Foggia,
has been a destination for religious tourism for over a millennium.
Church of the Crosses
When King Alfonso of Aragon, in 1447,
established the sheep customs, numerous shepherds from Puglia, Molise
and Abruzzo descended into the Foggia plain with tens of thousands of
herds grazing. Well, at the intersection of two important tratturi, just
outside the city of that time, was born this church destination for all
foreigners who entered every sacred place they encountered along their
way. In fact, on the top of the triumphal arch, on one side of the
cornice we read an inscription in Latin: O vos omnes qui transitis per
viam await et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus.
It seems
practically obvious, after the examination of numerous historical
documents, that the church was built starting from 1693 by the Capuchin
father Antonio da Olivadi who on his arrival found a city bent by
drought and began his work as a religious, to restore hope and faith to
the poor people. One day, after a preaching, he began a penitential
procession and miraculously it began to rain. Along the route traveled,
which was at the intersection of the two tratturi important for
transhumance, he planted seven wooden crosses. They can have different
readings, that is, be the path of the Via Crucis or the seven swords in
the heart of the Sorrowful (the ancient via Matris). The crosses were
enclosed, by the devout people, in an enclosure of stones and on each of
them was built a small dome supported by four arches: for such works
were spent about six thousand shields partly collected by the faithful
and for a large part disbursed by the richest families of the time.
Later the chapels were reduced from seven to five to create the space
necessary for the construction of the church.
Palazzo Dogana
Noteworthy, among the civil architecture of Foggia, is the Palazzo
Dogana. Built in the third century, it was the headquarters of the Royal
Customs of the Mena delle Pecore of Foggia and became a focal point for
southern Italy in the exchange of goods.
The fact that the
culture of Puglia and Abruzzo are so united can be attributed to the
presence of this building that, over the centuries, marked the end of
the journey of shepherds who practiced transhumance from L'Aquila to
Foggia itself.
In July 2013 came the communication of UNESCO that
elected the palace as a Monument and Site messenger of a Culture of
Peace.
The Villa comunale
It is the largest urban park in the
South, after the Villa Floridiana in Naples. The main entrance consists
of the imposing pronaos, composed of 28 Tuscan columns arranged in
double rows, designed in 1820 by the engineer Luigi oberty
Already in 1806 Gioacchino Murat had proposed the construction of
"casini" and gardens on the sides of a public villa. The garden-city,
which would have arisen around the villa, would have been lotted and
offered for sale.
But no one answered, because the " decurions
"opposed the division of the territory of" Pila e Croce " Only one villa
was opened, the so-called Royal Villa which in the plan of 1819 did not
include either the 700 versure or the 600 versure. Built in 1827, the
pronaos or propylaeum of the Villa Comunale was destroyed by the
bombings of the Second World War, it was then rebuilt in 1950. The
niches of the pronaos replaced the previous windows and never contained
any royal statues. The statues of the Bourbon royals were requested to
the sculptors Giuseppe Tacca and Tito Angelini for the niches of the
redoubt of the Real Teatro Ferdinando, as confirmed by the research of
the scholar Antonio Vitulli, published in his work on the theaters of
Foggia in the centuries X
Teatro Umberto Giordano
The works for the construction of the
Municipal Theater in Foggia began in 1825 and ended in 1828, the year in
which it was inaugurated and named after King Ferdinand. It was one of
the most important theaters of the kingdom and the oldest after the San
Carlo of Naples. The project is due to the Neapolitan architect Luigi
Obert Ob The theater, however, turned out to be insufficient to
accommodate the great public of Foggia so that, a few years after the
opening, it was expanded and the initial project of the obert rivis was
revisited replacing the original peristyle with six columns three large
arches and the windows of the first floor were transformed into
balconies. Inside it reveals the typical horseshoe shape, typical of
Italian theaters, with three orders of stages decorated with stucco; the
large vault that covers it is not decorated lavishly, but is embellished
with a valuable chandelier of crystals. Great attention was given to the
arrangement of the redoubt which is decorated with four statues of the
rulers of the time: Francis I and Maria Isabella and the successors
Ferdinand II and Maria Theresa. The name of the theater passed after the
unification of Italy from "Real Teatro Ferdinando" to "Teatro Dauno" and
in 1928 it was dedicated to the composer Umberto Giordano from Foggia.
The Teatro Comunale has been subject since 2007 to a phase of
restoration and renovation, the subject of numerous controversies.
Finally on December 10, 2014 the Theater “Giordano” in Foggia, closed
for eight years for restoration work, reopened its doors, for the
occasion was called to conduct a concert of the Youth Orchestra
“Cherubini” maestro Riccardo Muti, thus starting the new artistic season
under the direction of Michele Placido.
City walls and gates
In a document of 1583 kept at the Angelica
Library in Rome, the plan of Foggia is shown, which was surrounded by
walls, now destroyed, which opened into five doors, one for each village
with the exception of the village "Carmine Vecchio" or "dei mastri
carradori". Only the arpana gate is still extant, while the other gates
have been destroyed. The doors are:
Porta Arpana, better known as
"The Three Arches"
Porta Arpana or Porta Reale was the first gate
of the walls and also the largest, still existing, and is located at the
beginning of Via Arpi. It, at the time of Frederick II of Swabia marked
the entrance to the city, then began to mark the entrance of the
"Village of Saddlers" that extended to the current railway station. It,
radially, was the sixth village of Foggia. Now the Arpana gate is
flanked by two other arches, built in 1947.
The" Three Arches",
as the Porta Arpana is called, ideally divide on via Arpi the
Conservatory named after Umberto Giordano and the civic museum, rich in
finds also linked to the Neolithic past of the city.
Porta di San
Tommaso or Porta Luceria or Porta Nuova
The second gate of
Foggia, built in 1642 and demolished in 1867, the gate of St. Thomas
takes this name because it was located right next to the Church of St.
Thomas and marked the entrance to the "Borgo Croci", still existing, and
which radiated, is the first village of Foggia.
Porta Ecana or
Porta Troia or Porta di Sant'Agostino
Built near the old church of
Sant'Agostino in via Arpi (now moved), this door, the third in Foggia,
marked the entrance to the "Borgo Caprai", which was the second village
in Foggia.
Royal Door or Small Door
This gate, the fourth of
Foggia, was built near a commercial bank between Via Duomo and Corso
Garibaldi, marked the entrance to the "Borgo Rignano", which was the
fourth village of Foggia.
Gate of San Domenico
The fifth gate
of Foggia, once located at the level of the homonymous church marked the
entrance to the "Borgo Scopari" or "Borgo Giuncai", which was the fifth
village of Foggia.
The walls were not only external to the city,
but also internal, in fact there were the Walls of Corso Garibaldi,
which marked the entrance to the third village of Foggia, or "Borgo
Carmine Vecchio" or "Borgo dei mastri carradori"
Parks-Walks
Regional Natural Park Bosco Coronata. Protected
natural area, located near Borgo Incoronata. The park includes, beyond
the Bosco dell'incoronata, part of the proposed Site of Community
Importance (pSIC) called "Valle del Cervaro - Bosco dell'incoronata"
falling within the perimeter of the municipality of Foggia. Inside it
stands the sanctuary of the Madonna Coronata, an international
pilgrimage destination since the century. And first Western place of
Marian apparition. Numerous paths in the woods, of different lengths.
Municipal Villa-Karol Park Kar It is the second largest public park in
central southern Italy. Inside there is an archaeological excavation
relating to a Neolithic village and a forest on a small hill.
San
Felice Park, including cycle and pedestrian paths, sports fields, an
amphitheater and an infrastructure available to citizens.
Park and
Ipp Hippodrome "Campi Diomedei" - under construction and annexed
archaeological excavations. Approved a project to make it the largest
urban park in Italy, with several pedestrian, bicycle and equestrian
paths. Enhancement of the archaeological area of the Neolithic.
Colonnello D'Avanzo Park;
Volunteer Park for Peace;
Parco dei
Fiori, in the Yellow Spot district;
Largo Sant'Anna, in the popular
and historic Borgo Croci.
Piazzale Italia: once without its own name, it was indicated with the
same name as the barracks "Miale da Troia" (later became the
headquarters of the State Police) overlooking it. It was so called until
June 4, 1928, the day when Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy, went to
Foggia to discover the two tombstones placed on the facade of the
barracks, bearing the "Proclamation of entry into the war" and the
"Bulletin of Victory" and to inaugurate the so-called "Parco della
Rimembranza", consisting of five hundred pine trees, each adorned with a
tripod bearing an enamel iron plate with the name of a hero who fell
during the First World War.
The square was then called Piazza Ottobre
VIII Ottobre in memory of the revolutionary episode that, under the
command of Giuseppe Caradonna, left from that place on October 22, 1922
to join the armed fascists who had concentrated in Santa Marinella,
Monterotondo and Tivoli, to participate on October 29 of the same year
in the march on Rome, prepared by Benito Mussolini in order to conquer
power.
After a few years, on November 4, 1931, the park was
enriched by two poles, placed on large artistic stone bases, of about
thirty-five meters each, called "Antenne della Vittoria", on which were
hoisted, on holidays, the tricolor and the drape bearing the colors of
the city: with the war and bombings the park suffered extensive damage.
After the Armistice, during the reconstruction period, the square was
named after the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus. The name of
piazzale Italia dates back to October 22, 1959, when the monument to the
fallen in war was transferred there, the work of the sculptor Amleto
Cataldi, previously placed in Piazza Lanza, then became Piazza Giordano;
the monument to the fallen in war was solemnly inaugurated on June 4,
1929 by King Vittorio Emanuele III. In the same place stood previously
the monument to Vincenzo Lanza, the work of the sculptor Beniamino Cali,
inaugurated on October 22, 1871. The square is rearranged to highlight
the monument to the fallen in war and the buildings (the barracks "Miale
da Troia", the palace of Studies, the palace of Statues, the palace of
the University) that determine the perimeter.
Piazza Umberto
Giordano, which was returned to the city in 2008 after a due
restoration, has many statues. The main one is dedicated to Umberto
Giordano, built by the Venetian Romano Vio in 1962. The bronze statue is
in the center and next to it are gathered groups referring to his most
famous works, such as Marian Month, Siberia, Marcella, The Dinner of the
Mockery, The King, Fedora and Andrea Chenier.
Piazza Cavour:
pentagonal in shape, it is embellished in the center by a characteristic
fountain called "Fontana del Sele", but more commonly "fontana di Piazza
Cavour", placed in memory of the time when the city was able to benefit,
after long years of waiting, the water of the Sele. As a background to
the nineteenth-century square there is the elegant neoclassical style
pronaos that allows access to the villa. To the right are the two domes
overlooking the Apulian aqueduct palace, while to the left is the corner
of the simple facade of the palace that houses the university. Of the
various sides that enclose the square, one of those that have not been
touched by the reconstruction of huge buildings in the seventies is the
one that houses the Palazzo Mandara, built in the nineteenth century.
Piazza Settembre September, wide eighteenth century, houses
buildings of great value; to make it the background of the neoclassical
white colonnade of the church of San Francesco Saverio, called "delle
colonne", on the sides the bulk of the Palazzo della Dogana nuova, once
the seat of the province, used as a cultural container. On the opposite
side the palace that houses the headquarters of the State archive. In
front of the colonnade of the church, at the end of Via Duomo, stands
the bell tower of the Mother Church.
Piazza del Pozzo Rotondo or
Piazza Federico II, is located in the old town where in ancient times
there was a well, probably built by Federico II. Until the beginning of
the twentieth century on that site was placed the bust of the famous
painter Saverio Altamura. In Fascist times the bust was replaced by a
sculpture that takes up the shapes and decorations of the Federician era
of what was supposed to be the ancient medieval well and that was part
of the Federician palace; the water still flows in this well, even if it
is not drinkable.
Piazza Salvatore Baldassarre, located in the middle
of the oldest street of the city, houses a pretty water fountain to
remember the one made in 1831 by the sculptor Antonio Bassi, destroyed
by the bombings of 1943.
Piazza Purgatorio, one of the oldest
squares in the old town, is also mentioned in medieval maps. According
to established studies it stands on the place where Frederick II erected
his palace. The most important building is certainly the
seventeenth-century church of Santa Maria della Misericordia, also
called of the souls of Purgatory or of the Dead, hides inside an example
of Apulian Baroque. The church was reopened in 2014. The facade is
located opposite one of the accesses of the medieval hypogea.
Piazza Pericle Felici is one of the oldest squares in the city. It is
bordered on one side by the longitudinal part of the cathedral, where
the high bell tower built after the earthquake of 1731 in Baroque style
stands out elegantly and richly decorated; on the same side is the
church of the Succorpo or Crypt.
Piazza Francesco De Sanctis, near
Piazza Pericle Felici, houses the restored facade of the Mother Church;
on the sides there are ancient buildings of undoubted architectural
value such as the one that houses the Giovanni Pascoli elementary
school.
Piazza Cesare Battisti, located just off the track of the old
quarter, houses the neoclassical facade of the Teatro Comunale Umberto
Giordano, the work of the architect Luigi Obert.
Piazza del Lago, so
called for the presence in ancient times of a small pond where,
according to legend, two shepherds saw a wooden board emerge from the
water and on which hovered three flames. After cleaning it from the
slime, the two shepherds recognized the face of a Virgin and Child and
took it to safety in the ancient Tavern of the owl; there is a fountain
to remember the lake.
Piazza Vittorio Veneto, located just in front
of the train station. The square is decorated with a statue, the work of
the master Leonardo Scarinzi, entitled "Homecoming". The work represents
a wanderer returning home, with the station behind him and the city in
front of him.
Human settlements in the territory of the city of Foggia are already present in the Neolithic (around the sixth millennium BC). The inhabitants practiced agriculture there, favored by the fertility and regularity of the Table. Some of the settlements identified are that of Passo di Corvo, home to an archaeological park, and that highlighted by archaeological excavations in the area of the Villa comunale; other villages are buried in the area of the e Ipp Hippodrome and in the area between the Ordona Sud and Salice Nuovo districts. In the locality of Arpinova, at the gates of the city, settlements of the Daunian age dated III - II millennium BC, such as the Hypogeum of the Medusa and the necropolis of the ancient city of Arpi.
Foggia rises in the center of the Tavoliere delle
Puglie, between the Celone stream and the Cervaro river.
The
territory is located in a flat geographical area and has an altitude
range of 291 meters, with an altitude between 19 and 310 meters. The
municipal house is located at 76 m above sea level.
The city
lies on clayey soils, subject to high water stagnation. It falls
within the area indicated for medium seismicity.
The climate is Mediterranean, but with a sub-continental trend, as
the city is located at a relative distance from the sea (about 30 km
as the crow flies) and in the center of the Tavoliere delle Puglie.
This favors rather pronounced seasonal and daily temperature
variations, sometimes even 20 ° C, especially in the presence of
clear skies, poor ventilation and low relative humidity values.
These conditions contribute, especially in winter, to the formation
of night frost, when the temperature drops to 0 ° C thanks to the
considerable irradiation and consequently to the phenomenon of
thermal inversion.
In general, there are 4/5 days of snow
episodes per year, short and without accumulation. The most abundant
snowfall of the last twenty-five years occurred on December 15, 2007
with 20 cm; on 7 and 8 April 2003, up to 5-10 cm (significant given
the temporal value); January 16, 2002, about 10/15 cm; on 26/27
December 1996 up to 30 cm and on 3 January 1993, also on that
occasion about 30/35 cm.
The lowest minimum temperature
recorded at the Amendola Air Force meteorological station was -10.4
° C in the historic cold spell of January 1985.
Precipitation
is modest overall and, depending on the year, between 350 mm and 700
mm (469 mm the average from the Amendola weather station) and mainly
distributed in the autumn and winter quarters. The most consistent
accumulations of rain, but in any case almost never exceeding 60–70
mm per day, are associated with depressions formed on the Middle or
Lower Tyrrhenian between October and March that attract very humid
currents from the east / southeast from the sea, which pour rainfall
with moderate intensity, but persistent. The stau, offered by the
Apennine chain, plays an essential role.
Summer is
particularly hot, dry and dry: maximum temperatures easily exceed
+34 ° C / +35 ° C in the presence of the African subtropical
anticyclone, even exceeding +40 ° C at least a couple of times a
year. following of foehn winds which, falling from the Campania
Apennines, overheat causing temperatures to rise further. Memorable
are the +47 ° C measured at the Amendola Air Force station (15 km
away from the city center) on 25 June 2007 which represents the 2nd
highest temperature record in Europe, preceded by the record of +48
, 5 ° C of Catenanuova in the province of Enna on 20 August 1999.
Simultaneously with the considerable accumulation of heat in the
atmosphere, any intrusion of humid air can usually generate violent
thunderstorms, sometimes hail or rarely associated with microbursts.
Remember, the tornadoes that swept the city and part of the province
in the early afternoon of August 25, 1994, with winds above 120-130
km / h and classified as F1 on the Fujita scale. Around 1 pm local
time on the same day, the meteorological station of the Amendola Air
Force recorded a gust equal to 142.6 km / h from the southwest.
Winds, moderate or strong, blow predominantly from the southwest
or northwest. There are numerous days of fog a year (on average 34
according to the data of the Foggia Amendola Meteorological Station)
and concentrated between November and April, formed either by
radiation or by the flow of weak mild and humid sirocco currents on
a layer of more cold present on the ground, which places the city as
one of the most foggy in Central-Southern Italy.
From a
legislative point of view, the municipality of Foggia falls into the
Climatic Band D as the city's degree days are 1530, therefore the
maximum limit allowed for switching on the heaters is 12 hours a day
from 1 November to 15 April.