Bitonto

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Bitonto
coat of arms
Bitonto (Italy)
Bitonto
Country Italy
region Apulia
Metropolitan city Bari  (BA)
Coordinates 41 ° 7 ′  N , 16 ° 41 ′  E Coordinates: 41 ° 7 ′ 0 ″  N , 16 ° 41 ′ 0 ″  E
height 118  m slm
surface 172.9 km²
Residents 54,443 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 315 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 70032
prefix 080
ISTAT number 072011
Popular name Bitontini
Patron saint Madonna dell 'Immacolata Concezione
Website Bitonto
Bitonto, Torrione Angioino
Bitonto, Torrione Angioino

Bitonto is an Italian municipality with 54,443 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in Apulia in the metropolitan city of Bari and is located west of Bari near the Adriatic Sea . Among other things, olive oil and wine are produced here.

The neighboring municipalities are Altamura , Bari, Binetto , Bitetto , Giovinazzo , Modugno , Palo del Colle , Ruvo di Puglia , Terlizzi and Toritto .

history

Bitonto is of ancient origin. The city was probably founded by Greek settlers. Coin finds date back to the 6th century BC. BC back. In Roman times the name was Butuntum ( botontome and similar), it eventually became a Roman municipium . In the Middle Ages , Bitonto became part of the developing Norman Empire in southern Italy in the 11th century and then remained part of the Kingdom of Sicily . On May 25, 1734, the Battle of Bitonto took place in the vicinity of the city , in which a Spanish army under the Duke of Montemar defeated an Imperial-Austrian force under Prince Joseph Anton von Pignatelli di Belmonte and thus defeated the Kingdom of Sicily for the house Bourbon secured.

Bitonto was the seat of numerous bishops .

Attractions

The Cathedral

In the city, which was also the seat of a bishopric ( Diocese of Bitonto , today Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto ), there is the Cathedral of San Valentino, which is one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches in Apulia. It was built between 1175 and 1200.

Nikolaus von Bari gave a fiery sermon here in the summer of 1229 in front of Emperor Friedrich II , the content of which was symbolized by a relief on the pulpit. This pulpit relief on the outside of the staircase is a lesson in the Staufer imperial idea . During the crusade the city had fallen away from the emperor, but was regained shortly afterwards. This relief was created as an atonement memorial in which four Hohenstaufen rulers were placed next to one another in a direct ascending line: Friedrich I Barbarossa , handing his scepter in his left hand to his son Heinrich. Next to it - one level higher - Friedrich II. And finally his son Conrad IV. Only two crowns, namely Friedrich I and Friedrich II.

Pulpit relief Cathedral of San Valentino

The relief grows out of plant ornaments similar to a family tree. A bird at the foot of the relief represents a mixture of the Staufer eagle and the bird phoenix , the symbol of immortality, similar to the line of Christ's ancestors on medieval reliefs, on which Frederick II consciously leaned again here. The symbolic statement of this representation is: The Hohenstaufen dynasty will also rule for all eternity - which of course should not be true.

The Palazzo Vulpano-Sylos is a palace from 1445, which was built in the style of the Florentine Renaissance. The loggia of the square courtyard is richly decorated with allegorical reliefs intended to glorify the virtues and deeds of the Vulpano family.

traffic

Bitonto is surrounded by a ring road, Strada Provinciale 218, which is almost in the shape of an exact circle, but remained unfinished in its eastern section. Bitonto cannot be bypassed continuously in the western section of the ring road, as the SP 218 joins the motorway-like SP 231 in a northerly and southerly direction , which does not allow crossings due to separate lanes. This intersection of the SP 231, which is strategically important for the city of Bitonto, should be made possible by the construction of a bridge, which has been planned since 2011; however, the completion has been delayed again and again since 2014 due to difficulties with the contracted construction company.

Town twinning

sons and daughters of the town

See also

literature

  • E. Grazia: Bitonto . In: Enciclopedia Italiana . Vol. 7 (1950), p. 115 f.
  • Walter Hotz: Palaces and castles of the Staufer period . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1981.
  • Carl A. Willemsen: Apulia. Cathedrals and castles . 2nd edition, Cologne 1973, p. 130, figs. 69–76.
  • Rolf Legler: Apulia . 2nd edition, Cologne 1989, pp. 118, 290, Figs. 65, 71-74.

Web links

Commons : Bitonto  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ Ma a che punto sono i lavori del ponte sulla Sp 231 che avrebbe portato a compimento la Poligonale? da Bitonto, February 26, 2016, accessed on June 30, 2019 (German. At what point is the work on the bridge on the SP 231 that would have completed the ring road? ).
  3. ↑ Intoppi, lungaggini, varianti e stallo: la triste storia del ponte sulla SP 231. da Bitonto, October 18, 2018, accessed on June 30, 2019 (German setbacks, delays, changes and standstill: The sad story of the bridge on the SP 231 ).
  4. ↑ Ponte sulla Sp231, Ciminiello e Abbaticchio negli uffici tecnici della Città Metropolitana. Bitonto viva, February 28, 2019, accessed on June 30, 2019 (German bridge over the Sp231, Ciminiello and Abbaticchio in the technical offices of the metropolitan city ).