centro storico, a scacchiera, radiale, Cerignola, Cydiniola (denominazione storica)

South-east of Foggia, on the lower Tavoliere plain near the old route of the Via Traiana and the Ofanto river, lies Cerignola. Its historic core is laid out with a clear, rational hand: a grid of streets, pedestrian and vehicular, arranged on a radial plan, built for productive, artisanal and residential life. The place is bounded by artificial edges, a deliberate settlement.

Though stray Roman finds in the area prompted speculation of a link to ancient Cerina, there is no continuous habitation. The true origins of Cydiniola, as it was once called, belong more plausibly to the great wave of new settlements that spread across Capitanata between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. By the time of Frederick II, the town had accumulated enough wealth to appear in his tax register. In the fifteenth century it became a Caracciolo fief, and prospered. The early sixteenth century brought less peaceful times: French and Spanish forces clashed here, and the 1503 battle of Cerignola, following the Disfida di Barletta, left its mark on the town’s memory.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.