What is Andria known for?

Frederick II's octagonal Murge castle of the 1240s, UNESCO 1996, the image on the back of the Italian one-cent euro coin. Invented in Andria in the early twentieth century by the Bianchino family; the soft mozzarella shell filled with cream and stracciatella now travels worldwide. Coratina cultivar from the surrounding Murge, one of Italy's most-planted varieties, the backbone of Terra di Bari DOP.

Andria is a comune in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia region of Italy, about 71 kilometers from Bari.

Apulia · Barletta-Andria-Trani

Andria

Frederick II's favourite Apulian city, the birthplace of burrata, with the octagonal Castel del Monte rising 540 meters above the Murge eighteen kilometers south.

71 km / 44 mi

Nearest hub (Bari)

97,146

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Andria sits on the Murge plateau, ten kilometers from the Adriatic, the third-largest city in Puglia after Bari and Taranto. It was made a fortified civitas in 1046 under Peter the Norman, with twelve towers, three gates and a citadel; Frederick II raised it again in the thirteenth century and built his most famous castle on a hilltop eighteen kilometers south. Castel del Monte is an octagonal prism with eight octagonal towers, sitting alone on the Murgeand visible for fifty kilometers in any direction. UNESCO listed it in 1996 as a unique masterpiece of medieval military architecture, though it was never finished and never used for war. The other claim Andria makes is burrata, invented around the early twentieth century by the Bianchino family as a way to use leftover mozzarella scraps. Castel del Monte and a soft cream-filled cheese, both signature, both from the same Murge.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castel del Monte
Frederick II's octagonal castle of the 1240s, eighteen kilometers south on a Murge hilltop at 540 meters, UNESCO World Heritage since 1996.
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Romanesque cathedral founded in the twelfth century, rebuilt over the centuries, holds the crypt and the relics of San Riccardo, the city's patron.
Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Gothic-Romanesque church built by the Teutonic Knights in the late thirteenth century, with a sculpted portal that is one of the finest in Puglia.
Porta Sant'Andrea
Surviving medieval gate of the Frederician walls, also called Porta della Castellana, still framing the eastern entrance to the centro storico.
Parco Nazionale dell'Alta Murgia
National park on the Murge plateau around Castel del Monte, dolines and pseudosteppe, with the largest population of lesser kestrels in Europe.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the Murge months: clear light, mild evenings, the Castel del Monte plateau walkable without sweat. July and August hit thirty-six in the city and the castle exposed at 540 meters is brutal between noon and four. October is the olive harvest. November through March is quiet and cool; the cathedral and Sant'Agostino interiors are warmer than the streets and the city operates on its own rhythm rather than the tourist circuit. The Festa di San Riccardo in mid-September is the patron's day and the busiest civic moment of the year.