The culture of Apulia (), the region that constitutes the extreme southeast of the Italian peninsula, has had, since ancient times, mixed influences from the West and the East, due to its strategic position near the transition zone between these two cultural regions. Its location, on the west coast of the Adriatic and Ionian seas, the natural southern border between Western Europe and the Balkans and Greece, made it a bridge to the East since antiquity, and in the Middle Ages, it was a cultural frontier between the Roman-Germanic West and the Greek-Byzantine East.
Museums
Jatta National Archaeological Museum
Housed in the Jatta Palace in Ruvo di Puglia, it is the only example in Italy of a 19th-century private collection that has remained unchanged since the original museum design. The pieces preserved in the museum are from the collection gathered by the judge and archaeologist Giovanni Jatta (1767–1844) and his brother Giulio in the first half of the 19th century, being expanded by his nephew of the same name and acquired by the Italian state in 1991. A significant part of the collection consists of ceramics, mostly vases, from Magna Graecia, collected mainly in the Ruvo region, but also in those of Canosa and Taranto. Some pieces were collected in Greece.
National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MArTA)
Considered one of Italy's most important archaeological museums, it was founded in 1887 on the initiative of the Salento archaeologist Luigi Volta, who gathered the first collection and whose goal was to create a museum of Magna Graecia. It has been housed in the former Convent of San Pasquale Baylon of the Alcantarine Friars (built in the second half of the 18th century) since its foundation, which has been modified several times since 1901. During the last restoration, which took place between 2000 and 2007, the museum operated in the Pantaleo Palace.
The museum exhibits mainly archaeological pieces that document the history of the Taranto region (part of Magna Graecia) and also of other regions of Apulia, from the Paleolithic, late antiquity and early Middle Ages, the first traces of settlement in the 5th millennium B.C. and the first contacts of the Iapygians with the Aegean world in the Bronze Age, the various stages of Spartan colonization on the coast of the Gulf of Taranto, and the Roman period. The museum illustrates the ways of life, religion, funeral rituals and economy of the Greek cities of ancient Apulia, as well as their relations with Hellenistic and native culture, doing the same for Roman cities. An important part of the collection is dedicated to the processing of precious metals, namely gold, one of the most developed activities in Magna Graecia between the 4th and 1st centuries B.C. One of the most remarkable sets in the museum is the so-called "Golds of Taranto", a collection of gold jewelry pieces.
Giuseppe Fiorelli Museum of Urban Archaeology The Museo di Archeologia Urbana Giuseppe Fiorelli is housed in the De Nicastri-Cavalli Palace in Lucera, it was founded in 1905 and is considered the first "civic" (municipal) museum north of Bari. The archaeological collection includes precious artifacts ranging from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages and Roman times (most notably the mosaic in Piazza Nocelli). It also displays pieces of furniture from the De Nicastri family and a gallery of paintings by the Lucerino painter Giuseppe Ar (1898–1956).
Francesco Ribezzo Provincial Archaeological Museum (MAPRI) The Museo Archeologico Provinciale Francesco Ribezzo was founded in 1884 and is named after the local archaeologist and glottologist of the same name (1875–1952). It is located in the Piazza Duomo of Brindisi. The prehistoric sections include finds from all over the province, namely inscriptions in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, coins from the classical, medieval, and modern eras, Roman statues found in the historic center of Brindisi, Apulian, Attican and Messapian vases (trozzelle). There are also two bronze sculptures from Punta del Serrone, with restored statues of the Roman consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus and Roman citizens wearing togas, busts, female figures, and other bronze pieces found in the underwater excavations carried out in 1992.
Provincial Museum of Sigismondo Castromediano
The Museo Sigismondo Castromediano, in Lecce, was founded in 1868 by the Duke of Cavallino Sigismondo Castromediano, an Italian archaeologist, literate, and patriot. It is the oldest museum in Apulia. Initially housed in a former convent of the Celestines, it was acquired by the provincial administration in 1967 and it was moved to the building of the former Argento College in 1979. The museum has five sections: the didactic section, which shows all the sites of art-historical relevance; the antiques sections, with Attican vases with black and red figures and Italic vases from the 6th and 5th centuries B.C, and other archaeological finds, such as bronze statues, coins, and tombstones with Messapian inscriptions; the topography section, with ancient maps of Salento; the Pinacotheca, with paintings from the 14th to 18th centuries from the Venetian and Neapolitan schools, as well as some Romanesque and Renaissance sculptures; and the Sala mostre ("exhibition hall"), with works by artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. The same building houses the provincial library and a large study room.
Archaeological Civic Museum Founded in 1934 in Canosa di Puglia, the Museo Civico Archeologico di Palazzo Iliceto was housed in the 18th-century Casieri Palace until 2005. It currently occupies the Iliceto Palace, from the same century. The museum has a collection of about 2,000 archaeological finds collected in excavations carried out in Canosa di Puglia and in tombs from the 5th to 3rd centuries B.C. Among them are inscriptions, sculptures, bas-reliefs, marbles, coins, jewelry, vases and other ceramics dating back around 1,500 years (from the 6th century B.C. to the 10th century A.D.), and some prehistoric pieces. Among others, there are Daunian, Roman, Paleochristian and Byzantine relics.
Diocesan Museum of Trani The Museo Diocesano di Trani is owned by the Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie. It was founded in 1975 on the initiative of Archbishop Giuseppe Carata to properly accommodate the tombstones, sculptures, and other stone pieces that resulted from demolitions carried out in the cathedral and other churches in the city of Trani. Over the years its collection has been expanded with other works and finds of high artistic and historical value. The museum has several sections spread around the Addazi Palace and the Lodispoto Palace. The headquarters is in the latter, where the highlights are a collection of tombstones from the 6th to the 18th centuries; the Chapter Treasury, which includes liturgical objects; an exhibition of the construction works of the local archbishops between the 14th century and the present; and an archaeological section that includes finds from the 6th millennium B.C. The Addazi Palace houses the art gallery, where paintings from the Trani Cathedral are on display.
Diocesan Museum of Taranto The MuDi - Museo Diocesano di arte sacra di Taranto was opened in 2011 by Archbishop Benigno Luigi Papa and is housed in the former archdiocesan seminary of Taranto, a 16th-century old town building. It has more than 300 works of heritage from a period ranging from the 17th to the 20th century on display, including religious furniture, relics, paintings, and sculptures of great cultural value, mainly from churches no longer open to worship. Highlights are the "Treasure of Catald," which includes the gold cross found on the saint's chest during work on the 11th-century cathedral, ancient reliquaries with the tongue of Saint Cataldo, and the blood of Saint Vitus. In the painting collection, highlights include Corrado Giaquinto's The Dream of Saint. Joseph, an Ecce Homo by Paolo de Matteis, and several contemporary religious paintings donated by Archbishop Benigno Papa. One of the museum's unique pieces is a Brazilian topaz from King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, with a carved figure of Jesus, noted as the world's greatest jewel.
Museum of the High Tavoliere (San Severo)
The Museum of the High Tavoliere (Museo dell'alto Tavoliere) in city of San Severo has a large collection of archeological finds from the surrounding countryside, dating from to the Paleolithic to Medieval times. Its collection includes Grecian-style pottery and artefacts and it hosts one of the most important collection of the Daunians. It also hosts a small art gallery. The collection is maintained in a former Franciscan monastery.
Diocesan Museum of Lucera
Opened in 1999, the Museo Diocesano di Lucera is housed in the Episcopal Palace of Lucera. In addition to the collection of paintings of the bishops of Lucera-Troia, it has on display several pieces from different eras, most of them from Lucero churches that have been deactivated. Highlights include a red jade ciborium from the 13th century, a diptych of the Sulmona school in gilded silver leaf from the 14th century, a linen coat with embroidery, the stole and hat of Augustine Kažotić (14th century), the wool cape of Franciscan saint Francis Fasani (17th–18th centuries), a chancel cabinet (private altar) with a gilded wooden altarpiece (18th or 19th century) and several reliquaries.
Aurelio Marena Diocesan Museum Also known as Monsignor Aurelio Marena Museum and Monsignor Aurelio Marena Pinacotheca Museum ("Museo Pinacoteca Monsignor Aurelio Marena"), it opened in 1969. It is the museum of the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto, which brings together the artistic heritage of the Bitonto Cathedral. The museum has two major sections: a Pinacotheca and a Romanesque lapidarium. The first operates in the seminary building, built in the first half of the 18th century, and the second on the first floor of the episcopal palace. The painting collection includes a Virgin with Child by Anthony van Dyck, an Adoration of the Shepherds by Marco Pino from 1576, a Resurrection of Lazarus by Francesco de Mura from the 1730s, and a fragment of a wooden icon with the Hodegetria Virgin, a Byzantine work from the 12th century. There is also a section dedicated to the 17th-century Bitontine school of painting. The rest of the exhibition includes frescoes, sculptures, religious furniture and objects, Sèvres vases, and decorative elements taken from the cathedral, namely the iconostasis and the ciborium, from the period between the 12th and 20th centuries.
Corrado Giaquinto Pinacotheca
Also known as the Provincial Pinacotheca of Bari and the Metropolitan Pinacotheca of Bari, it was founded in 1928 and was initially housed in the local government palace, having been moved in 1936 to the Provincial Palace on Bari's monumental waterfront. The pinacotheca has collections of the Apulian and Neapolitan schools of painting from the late Middle Ages, the Venetian school from the 15th and 16th centuries, by Corrado Giaquinto (1703–1765), Neapolitan and Southern Italian paintings from the 19th century, as well as more recent artworks. The Venetian painting section features works by Bartolomeo Vivarini (1430–1491), Giovanni Bellini (1433–1516), Paris Bordon (1500–1571), Tintoretto (1519–1594), and Palma il Giovane (1548–1628). Other famous painters with works in the museum are Luca Giordano (1634–1705), Francesco De Mura (1696–1782), Giuseppe De Nittis (1846–1884), Giovanni Boldini (1842–1931), Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) and Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964). There are also medieval Apulian maiolicas, Neapolitan nativity scenes, and antique pieces of clothing.
Giuseppe De Nittis Pinacotheca