What is Trani known for?

Apulian Romanesque cathedral built on the water for a Greek pilgrim saint, the signature image of the southern Adriatic. Twelfth-century maritime code drafted in Trani, one of the earliest written sea laws in the western Mediterranean. DOC sweet white from late-harvest moscato bianco grown on the limestone coast, served chilled with almond pastries.

Trani is a comune in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia region of Italy, about 49 kilometers from Bari.

Apulia · Barletta-Andria-Trani

Trani

The Adriatic port whose pink-white Romanesque cathedral stands on the water, built for a Greek pilgrim who died here in 1094.

49 km / 30 mi

Nearest hub (Bari)

54,941

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Trani sits on the Adriatic forty-five kilometers west-northwest of Bari, one of the three capitals of the Barletta-Andria-Trani province. The cathedral is the reason most travelers come. Dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Pilgrim, a Greek who died in Trani in 1094, the church was begun in 1159 and built from the local calcareous tuff that quarries pink-white almost to the point of looking bleached. The fifty-nine-meter bell tower was finished in the fourteenth century; the central bronze door is a 1175 work by Barisano da Trani. The Castello Svevo on the same harbor was built by Frederick II between 1233 and 1249 to guard the roadstead. Trani's eleventh- and twelfth-century maritime republic linked the Crusader Adriatic to the East and produced the Ordinamenta maris, one of the earliest western sea codes. The cathedral square at dusk, sea on one side and Castello Svevo on the other, is the photograph.

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Gallery

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Known for

Cattedrale di San Nicola Pellegrino
Romanesque cathedral begun in 1159 on a sea-edge platform, built of local pink-white tuff, with a fifty-nine-meter bell tower and the 1175 bronze door by Barisano da Trani.
Castello Svevo
Frederick II fortress of 1233-1249 on a rock at the center of the harbor, designed by Filippo Cinardo, later a royal court seat and provincial prison until 1974.
Porto e lungomare
Working fishing harbor lined with palazzi and trattorie, with the cathedral at one end and the Castello Svevo at the other.
Sinagoga Scolanova
Thirteenth-century synagogue in the old Jewish quarter, returned to Jewish use in 2006 after centuries as a church, one of the oldest in active service in Europe.
Giudecca
Medieval Jewish quarter behind the harbor, a network of narrow lanes that produced four synagogues during the maritime republic and still carries their footprints.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May, June, September and October are the easiest months on the harbor: warm without humidity, the cathedral square workable from morning into the evening, the Adriatic still swimmable. July and August are hot and busy, with cruise day-trippers and weekend Bari traffic taking the port. The fish auction at the molo continues through the summer; the local moscato bottling runs from August into September. November through March the wind off the Adriatic turns sharp and many palazzi close their shutters, but the cathedral against winter storm light is a sight that earns the cold walk. The Castello Svevo museum stays open year-round.