centro storico, costiero, religioso, Molfetta

In the northern reaches of the Bari province, the historic core of Molfetta occupies a peninsula once known as the Island of Sant’Andrea. In the early Middle Ages, this was a genuine insular landholding, separated from the mainland by a canal that long ago silted up; its course is now traced by Corso Dante. The medieval church dedicated to the apostle gave the island its name, and the settlement that grew here, called Respa in antiquity, combines residential, productive, artisanal, port and religious functions in a characteristically coastal Apulian manner.

An intriguing cartographic episode underscores the town’s historical weight. In 1582, the celebrated Venetian printer Aldus Manutius requested a topographical plan and origin account from Molfetta’s civic authorities. The commission fell to the patrician Matteo Giuseppe Marinelli, already known for his cartographic work. His finished report never reached Venice. Only when the manuscript was later rediscovered in a lawyer’s archive did the historian Francesco Lombardi produce his own version in 1703, a work that remains the most reliable source for reconstructing the city’s early constitution.

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