centro storico, di pianura, produttivo, commerciale, Foggia, Fogia (denominazione storica), Sancte Marie de Fogia (denominazione storica, 1090)

Foggia rises from the flatlands of the Tavoliere, that great agricultural plain of Apulia, at the crossing of the Celone torrent and the Cervaro river. The first written mention of the settlement, as Sancte Marie de Fogia, comes from 1090, but the ground beneath it had known Neolithic villages long before. The marshy terrain gave rise to a local legend: the miraculous discovery of an image of the Virgin, the so-called Iconavetere still in the cathedral, said to have prompted the building of the first church around which the town coalesced.

Within decades, Foggia became a castrum, and suburbs spread around its edges. The medieval core, shaped irregularly like a horse’s head, clustered around the main artery of via Arpi and was divided into quarters called pittagia. It reached its peak of prominence under Frederick II, when it was declared a regalis sedes inclita imperialis. A working town of cult, craft, and commerce, Foggia remains a productive and commercial centre, its internal streets a mix of pedestrian and vehicular life.

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