Mattinata

Mattinata
Country	Italy
region	Apulia
province	Foggia  (FG)
Coordinates	41 ° 43 '  N , 16 ° 3'  E Coordinates: 41 ° 43 '0 "  N , 16 ° 3' 0"  E
height	75  m slm
surface	72.81 km²
Residents	6,171 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	85 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	71030
prefix	0884
ISTAT number	071031
Popular name	Mattinatesi
Patron saint	Maria della Luce
Website	Mattinata

Mattinata (in the local dialect: Matenéte ) is an Italian commune ( comune ) with 6,171 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the province of Foggia in Apulia . The municipality is located about 50 kilometers northeast of Foggia on the Gulf of Manfredonia (Adriatic Sea). Mattinata is located in the Gargano National Park and is part of the Comunità Montana del Gargano.

history

During archaeological excavations, remnants of the ancient settlement Matinum from Roman times were uncovered directly at the small harbor , which was probably destroyed by a tidal wave (as a result of a seaquake or similar). The place Mattinata was therefore rebuilt by the survivors about 1–2 km from the coast on a first hill in the interior. Already in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny one is Matinates ex Gargani mentioned. The ruins of the Benedictine abbey SS Trinità di Monte Sacro date from the Middle Ages , which once perched on the 874 meter high mountain Monte Sacro a few kilometers away . The Mattinata community recently received a 3D plan model of the abbey from the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, whose employees were on the trail of the Staufer kings in Apulia, which was created by the German scientists who were involved in the excavations on site. Ancient graves (necropoli) of the Illyrian Daunians were also discovered on the neighboring Monte Saraceno ridge , which separates Mattinata from its district town Manfredonia and the adjacent Apulian lowlands of Tavoliere . Settled in the area.

Economy and Transport

Mattinata

The coastal community of Mattinata has been one of the poorest communities in Italy for a long time due to its remote location and surrounded by the impassable Gargano Mountains, and has actually no industry today. The people are currently employed in the public service, trade and small businesses. In addition, agriculture (olives) and seasonally also tourism play a certain role. In the 1960s and 1970s, a large part of the male rural population answered the call to earn their living as guest workers in the industrial centers of Europe. It is said that the increasing prosperity and the many new houses that have been built in the community in the recent past are mainly due to the transfers and the numerous returnees from Germany.

Until the Second World War, the place was only connected by donkey paths with its neighboring towns of Monte Sant'Angelo and Manfredonia in the west, which could only be visited by means of an arduous day trip. The sea route was the only sensible option to get to the neighboring municipality of Vieste to the east . It was not until Mussolini that the Gargano was made accessible by roads, and it took until the 1980s for the residents of Mattinata to take the car to drive by expanding the Strada Statale (federal road) Foggia - Vieste and tunneling under Monte Saraceno District town Manfredonia reduced from 1 hour to 20 minutes.

Cultural event

The Corso Matino in September with festive lights

The big village festival is held every year from 14. – 16. September celebrated in honor of the patron saint of the municipality of Santa Maria della Luce. The place is decorated, the children have no school, the adults mostly vacation. There are parades with a fair. The Italian tradition of celebrating the respective patron saint of the community can best be compared with the tradition of the parish fair and / or meadow festival in Germany.

Of Corso Matino , the main street of Mattinata is blocked during the summer months every evening to traffic and turned into a pedestrian zone. Since the Mattinatese is usually a very sociable and communicative person, strolling in the piazza (Corso Matino) every evening is one of the favorite pastimes of young and old.

Mattinata in literature

In 2018 the German science journalist Thomas de Padova published his book "Nonna", in which he addresses the life of his Apulian grandmother. De Padova, the son of an Italian guest worker from Neuwied , spent his summer holidays with the family in Mattinata, his father's hometown, from early childhood. The father - like his father and his father and many men from the village - had sought his fortune abroad. Meanwhile, women and children lived in their barren, secluded world in poor circumstances.

Web links

Commons : Mattinata  - 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. ↑ I ruderi dell'Abbazia Benedettina della SS.Trinità di Monte Sacro , Italian, accessed on May 10, 2020
3. ^ Thomas de Padova: Nonna . Munich: Hanser 2018.