Adelfia, città della fratellanza

Dario Melissano 27 July 2024

Adelfia is a municipality in the metropolitan city of Bari with about 16 thousand inhabitants. It is a municipality born in 1927 from the merger of two distinct municipalities: Canneto di Bari and Montrone. To seal the union, the name Adelfia was chosen, from the Greek adelphòs, meaning brotherhood.

The old town of Montrone arose in 982, founded by a Byzantine merchant, a certain Roni Sensech, fleeing from Bari under the pressure of the Lombard troops. Thus was born the village of Mons Roni. Among its first inhabitants, there was a Byzantine priest who painted a Nativity in one of the three caves of the place. In correspondence with that cave in 1086 the chapel called Madonna del Principio was built.

In 1390 it became the property of the notable from Bari Nicolò Dottula who endowed the village with a turreted castle, the nucleus of the current marquis' palace.

On April 5, 1799, following the killing of the trumpeter of the Napoleonic army, passing through Terra di Bari, by a Montrone citizen of Bourbon faith, 83 citizens were killed, including those who had taken refuge in the chapel of the Madonna del Principio. With the return of the Bourbons, a cross was erected in memory of the massacre.

The second city that forms Adelfia is Canneto. During the military campaign led by Robert Guiscard and aimed at the conquest of Bari (1067-1071), Giosuè Galtieri from Messina together with some companions found a cane field from which he was able to supply himself with large quantities of reeds, with which more than 200 huts necessary for the army were built. When Bari capitulated, Robert, who became its duke, rewarded Giosuè Galtieri by enfeoffing him with the area.

Galtieri married Beatrice Curcelli from Taranto. One of their daughters, Stella Beatrice, married Alfonso Barbiano from Naples, who thus obtained the barony of Canneto and built the baronial palace there. In 1186 the chapel of the Madonna della Stella was built, an ex voto for the unexpected recovery of Stella Beatrice.

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Adelfia, city of brotherhood

In 1390 it became the property of the notable from Bari Nicolò Dottula who endowed the village with a turreted castle, the nucleus of the current marquis' palace.

Written by Dario Melissano

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Adelfia, city of brotherhood

In 1390 it became the property of the notable from Bari Nicolò Dottula who endowed the village with a turreted castle, the nucleus of the current marquis' palace.

Written by Dario Melissano

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