Terlizzi ( Barese: ) is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' of the region of

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

in southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, in the

Metropolitan City of Bari The Metropolitan City of Bari ( it, Città Metropolitana di Bari) is a metropolitan city in the Apulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Bari. It replaced the Province of Bari and includes the city of Bari and some forty other municipali ...

, lying to the west of the seaport of

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

on the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

, in the midst of a fertile plain. , its population was some 27,000.

History

Terlizzi is first mentioned in an 8th-century AD document, when its Lombard possessor donated the area to the

Abbey of Montecassino An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

. After the Byzantine domination, from the 11th century Trelizzi was under the influence of the counts of

Giovinazzo Giovinazzo ( Barese: ) is a town, ''comune'' (municipality) and former bishopric within the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia region, southeastern Italy. History It was a small fortified centre of the Romans, who called it Natolium, maybe buil ...

, whose member Amico fortified both the cities. Later it was ruled by the Tuzziaco, Wrunfort,

Orsini Orsini is a surname of Italian origin, originally derived from Latin ''ursinus'' ("bearlike") and originating as an epithet or sobriquet describing the name-bearer's purported strength. Notable people with the surname include the following: *Angel ...

di Taranto and Grimaldi families. The oldest map of Terlizzi still hangs in the Palace at

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

of the latter's house. It became a commune after the

Unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century Political movement, political and social movement that resulted in the Merger (politics), consolidation of List of historic stat ...

in 1861, when it had 18,000 inhabitants.

Main sights

It had a castle which at one time was very strong, and occasionally resorted to by the

Emperor Frederick II Frederick II (German: ''Friedrich''; Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusa ...

, and later by the Aragonese sovereigns of Naples. Its remains include a high clock tower in the center of town that was built by the Norman conquerors in the 12th century AD. The back-lit clock on that tower is the second largest in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

after

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The officia ...

. The Co-Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo was built in Neo-Classicist style in the 18th and 19th centuries, replacing the old Romanesque ''Duomo'' of the 13th century. It houses several canvasses and a notable collection of wooden statues. The walls and towers of the town remain, but the fosse was turned into boulevards. Torre terlizzi

In 1745, a fine Greek-made inkstand inlaid in silver was found in a nearby, ancient cove, in Suberito (at now, Sovereto). Starting from that date, was built a tall triumphal wagon to keep the picture in Terlizzi's streets. One of the last remaining stretches of the

Appian Way The Appian Way (Latin and Italian language, Italian: ''Via Appia'') is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient Roman Republic, republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is ...

that is still unpaved runs through the outskirts of Terlizzi. This stretch of the Appian Way is part of the Via Appia Traiana, built by Emperor

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

sometime around 115 AD. Just off this road, out of the town, is the church of Santa Maria di Cesano, built in 1055 AD. It houses a precious Byzantine fresco of Christ Pantocrator. In the centre of the city is notable the big Palace built by the Barons de Gemmis, with the annexed church of Santa Maria La Nova. It is from the 18th century and was designed by the architect

Luigi Vanvitelli Luigi Vanvitelli (; 12 May 1700 – 1 March 1773), known in Dutch as (), was an Italian architect and painter. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicising academic Late Baroque style that made an eas ...

People

* Ferrante de Gemmis, writer * Gennaro de Gemmis, writer from the same family *

Nichi Vendola Nicola "Nichi" Vendola (; born 26 August 1958) is an Italian left-wing politician and LGBT activist who was a Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Apulia from 1992 to 2005 and President of Apulia from 2005 to 2015. He is one of the first o ...

, Governor of Apulia from 2005 * Michele de Napoli, painter *

Giuseppe Millico Vito Giuseppe Millico, called "''Il Moscovita''" (19 January 1737 – 2 October 1802), was an Italian soprano castrato, composer, and music teacher of the 18th century who is best remembered for his performances in the operas of Christoph Wi ...

(1739–1802),

castrato A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to ...

contemporary of

Farinelli Farinelli (; 24 January 1705 – 16 September 1782) was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (), a celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli h ...

* Dionigi "Tony" Catalano (1921–2011) * Felipe Posada Di Terlizzi (1999–present) * Ilaria De Pinto (1983–present) Angel

References

{{authority control Cities and towns in Apulia Castles in Italy