Bari
Discover Bari
A concise introduction to Bari, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Bari is the capital of Puglia and, with about 320,000 people, the largest city in southern Italy after Naples.
It divides sharply in two. Bari Vecchia occupies a low promontory between the old and new harbours: a dense maze of lanes holding the Basilica di San Nicola, the cathedral of San Sabino and the Swabian castle. Immediately south of it is the Murattiano, a rigid nineteenth-century grid of wide straight streets laid out under Joachim Murat, where the shops, the theatre and most of the city's ordinary life are.
Along the seaward edge runs the lungomare, a long monumental seafront promenade.
Bari is a working port before it is a destination — the busiest passenger port on the Adriatic, with ferries to Greece, Albania, Croatia and Montenegro — and a university city of some size. It is not a museum town, and that is much of its appeal.