What is Conversano known for?

Norman fortress of 1054, residence of the Acquaviva d'Aragona counts from 1455 to the early 1800s, the longest-ruling feudal dynasty of Puglia. Ten paintings of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered by Paolo Finoglio of the 1640s, commissioned by Count Giangirolamo II, hung inside the castle Pinacoteca. The Cistercian abbey-monastery of San Benedetto, entrusted to exiled Greek nuns in 1266, whose abbess held mitred authority almost unique in Western Christendom.

Conversano is a comune in the province of Bari, Apulia region of Italy, about 31 kilometers from Bari.

Apulia · Bari

Conversano

A pre-Murge hill town, three centuries seat of the Acquaviva counts, with the abbey-monastery once called the Wonder of Puglia.

31 km / 19 mi

Nearest hub (Bari)

25,779

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Città dell'Olio

Why come

Conversano sits on the first hills of the Murge plateau, twenty-five kilometers southeast of Bari and seven from the Adriatic. The Castello di Conversano was raised around 1054 by the Normans for defence and turned into a seigneurial residence by the Acquaviva d'Aragona counts, who ruled from 1455 until the early nineteenth century. Inside the castle the Pinacoteca holds the ten-canvas cycle of episodes from Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata painted by Paolo Domenico Finoglio in the 1640s, commissioned by Count Giangirolamo II d'Acquaviva. Opposite the castle stands the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, eleventh- and twelfth-century Apulian Romanesque with a sculpted portal, a rose window, and an interior Crucifix that anchors the patronal procession. The former Monastero di San Benedetto, with a Romanesque cloister, was entrusted in 1266 by Pope Clement IV to Cistercian nuns exiled from Methoni in Greece, an arrangement so unusual it earned the monastery the medieval nickname Monstrum Apuliae, the Wonder of Puglia.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello di Conversano
Norman castle of 1054 turned seigneurial residence by the Acquaviva d'Aragona counts, with the Pinacoteca holding Finoglio's ten Gerusalemme Liberata canvases.
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Apulian Romanesque cathedral of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, sculpted portal, rose window, wooden Crucifix venerated as the city's protector.
Monastero di San Benedetto
Former Benedictine then Cistercian monastery with Romanesque cloister, called Monstrum Apuliae for the abbess-power of the Greek nuns entrusted to it from 1266.
Chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria
Small Romanesque rotunda church near the castle, one of the oldest standing buildings in town, in unusual circular plan with rib vault.
Centro storico
Walled old town between castle and cathedral, with the Acquaviva palace, the monastery cloister and the white limestone alleys of the Murge edge.

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 at this altitude: clear light, mild evenings, the cherry orchards in flower or fruit. Conversano is the centre of the IGP cherry zone and the late-May ciliegia harvest is the year's commercial peak. July and August hit thirty-five degrees and the centro storico empties in the afternoon. The Conversano Jazz festival and summer concerts in the castle courtyard run through the worst heat. November through March is quiet, the cathedral and the castle interiors are warmer than the streets, and the Finoglio gallery is best seen out of season when there is space to stand in front of the canvases.