What is Giovinazzo known for?

Santa Maria Assunta, built 1125-1180 by the Normans, holds the Byzantine Madonna of Corsignano icon and is the town's patronal seat. Città dell'Olio with one of the largest olive-growing agri in the Metropolitan City of Bari, anchoring small frantoi across the countryside. Bronze Age megalithic tomb from roughly 1500 BC, the only intact dolmen in this stretch of the Murgia coastal terrace.

When is the best time to visit Giovinazzo?

May–Sep. May through June and September are the best months on this stretch of Adriatic coast, with warm sea and mild evenings. July and August touch thirty-five degrees and the small harbor fills with weekenders from Bari; the centro storico stays cooler in the lanes than out on the wall. The festa for the Madonna of Corsignano runs through August. October cools back down quickly and the olive harvest opens in the countryside, the season the Città dell'Olio frantoi crank up. November through March is cold and wind-blown from the north; much of the seafront closes, and the cathedral is best in winter when the icon reads without crowds.

Giovinazzo is a comune in the province of Bari, Apulia region of Italy, about 24 kilometers from Bari.

How do I get to Giovinazzo?

From Bari, Giovinazzo is roughly 24 km by road.

Apulia · Bari

Giovinazzo

An Adriatic fishing port twenty kilometers northwest of Bari, with a Norman cathedral and a Bronze Age dolmen in the agro inland.

Known for

NORMAN CATHEDRAL
Santa Maria Assunta, built 1125-1180 by the Normans, holds the Byzantine Madonna of Corsignano icon and is the town's patronal seat.
OLIVE OIL
Città dell'Olio with one of the largest olive-growing agri in the Metropolitan City of Bari, anchoring small frantoi across the countryside.
DOLMEN SAN SILVESTRO
Bronze Age megalithic tomb from roughly 1500 BC, the only intact dolmen in this stretch of the Murgia coastal terrace.

When to visit

Best · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Tommaso, 3 July

Why come

Giovinazzo sits on the Adriatic twenty kilometers northwest of Bari, between Molfetta and the Bari coastal belt. The Romans called it Natolium, fortifying the site under Trajan in 102 AD on what may be the older Peucetian settlement of Netium. The Norman cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was built between 1125 and 1180 in the Puglian Romanesque style and consecrated in 1283; it still holds the Byzantine icon of the Madonna of Corsignano, the patron, celebrated through August.

The medieval centro storico runs in narrow stone lanes around the harbor, where the small fishing fleet still ties up below the sea wall. Five kilometers inland, the Dolmen di San Silvestro is a Bronze Age funerary chamber from around 1500 BC, set in a grove of olive and carob, the agro that makes Giovinazzo a Città dell'Olio. The town hosts one of the few elite roller hockey clubs in Italy.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Giovinazzo’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

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What to see

Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Norman cathedral of 1125-1180 in Puglian Romanesque, consecrated in 1283, with the Byzantine icon of the Madonna of Corsignano above the main altar.
Centro storico
Medieval old town in narrow stone lanes wrapping the small port, walled on the seaward side and rebuilt after Norman reconquest in the eleventh century.
Dolmen di San Silvestro
Bronze Age funerary dolmen from around 1500 BC, set on a Murgia terrace among olive and carob trees five kilometers inland from town.
Chiesa di San Domenico
Sixteenth-century Dominican church on the main piazza, redone in Baroque style in the eighteenth century, with a painted wooden ceiling.

The slow-trip planner

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Living here

Population 19,366
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Bari / Brindisi, 19 min drive
Regional capital Bari, 31 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

Città dell'Olio

The numbers

Elevation: 7 m
Population: 19,366
Surface area: 44.3 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Bari

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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