Foggia

 

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.

 

Monuments and landmarks

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.

 

Religious architecture

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

 

Theatres

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.

 

Military architecture

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"

 

Other

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.

 

Squares of greatest interest

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.

 

Rock settlements

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.

 

Territory

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.

 

Climate

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.