Adelfia ( el, Αδέλφια, meaning ''brothers'';
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 ...
'' 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 munici ...
,
Apulia, 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 ...
. The town is south of central Bari, and is a combination of two smaller towns, Montrone and Canneto.
History
The urban center includes two former villages that were separated for a long time. Canneto was founded by the
Normans
The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. T ...
of
Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard (; Modern ; – 17 July 1085) was a Norman adventurer remembered for the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. Robert was born into the Hauteville family in Normandy, went on to become count and then duke of Apulia and Calab ...
between 1080 and 1090, on the place of an ancient center (probably to be identified with ''Celiae''), documented from ceramics and more recent graves from the 4th century. Montrone was founded in 980 by Greek refugees. Both had been subdued to varied feudal lords until 1806 when feudalism was abolished under the
Kingdom of Two Sicilies. The two villages were united in 1927 under the artificial name of Adelfia, from the Greek term ''adelphòs'', meaning brotherhood.
Between the 19th and the 20th century, there was considerable emigration to the United States. Town life is now mainly connected to nearby Bari.
Adelfia has a strong
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
tradition. Its citizens celebrate the feasts of its patron saints, San Trifone (in Montrone) and San Vittoriano (in Canneto), in November and July each year. The celebrations include fairs, masses and fireworks competitions which attract thousands of pilgrims from all over the world.
References
Populated places established in 1927
Cities and towns in Apulia
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