Bari Culture

Bari's culture runs on three things: the saint, the food and a strong sense of itself as a capital rather than a province.

A saint held in common

San Nicola is venerated by Catholics and Orthodox alike, and the basilica keeps an Orthodox chapel in the crypt. The relationship is real and long-standing — Russian, Greek, Serbian and Ukrainian pilgrims come in numbers, and a Russian Orthodox church stands elsewhere in the city. Bari is one of the few places in western Europe where that shared devotion is visible daily rather than ceremonially.

Orecchiette in the street

In Via Arco Basso in the old town, women make orecchiette by hand at tables set outside their front doors and sell them from the same tables. It is genuinely traditional rather than staged, though it has become famous enough to draw its own crowds and its own arguments about regulation.

What Bari eats

Focaccia barese, thick and heavy with tomato and olive; tiella of rice, potatoes and mussels; panzerotti; sgagliozze, fried squares of polenta sold from pans in the street; and raw seafood, eaten on the quay at the old harbour.

University and football

The University of Bari, founded in 1925, brings tens of thousands of students into the city and keeps the Murattiano busy out of season. Football is the other collective passion: the Stadio San Nicola, designed by Renzo Piano for the 1990 World Cup, stands outside the city and is a remarkable building in its own right, a ring of separated concrete petals.

The Petruzzelli

Italy's fourth-largest theatre was destroyed by arson in 1991 and stood as a shell for eighteen years before reopening in 2009. Its loss and its return are both part of how the city talks about itself.