The Cathedral of Trani

Trani is a large Apulian center in the province of Bari; it has 54,000 inhabitants and is located a short distance from Barletta. In the Middle Ages it was the most important trading square in the lower Adriatic. It even boasts the oldest medieval maritime code, dating back to 1063. The most famous monument of the city is certainly the Cathedral which stands isolated on the sea following a controversial urban intervention, aimed at making it even more suggestive. It is one of the most accomplished and refined examples of Apulian Romanesque architecture. It was built on the previous building, called the hypogeum of San Leucio, dating back to the 5th-6th centuries. In 1186 it was opened to the faithful, although the structure was completed two centuries later. The façade is in the usual local structure in white-pink stone and is marked in the lower part by traditional blind arches in the center of which opens a portal surrounded by countless sculpted figures, both symbolic and human. To the right of the façade stands a beautiful bell tower which makes the overall view of the monument like the most evocative image of all of Puglia.