“Don't be surprised at encountering elephants hereabouts. They have heard of them since the times of Hannibal, at the very least. And don't be surprised if Canosa, occupying three quarters of a hill, appears, by an extraordinary conjuring trick, round the bend of a historic road [the Trajan Way] . What town, if not one of Homeric destiny and designated to prosper before Homer's birth, could aspire to be chosen among the ones destined to officially link Rome to the sea?

A hill like a wave, swelling more than the calm at its feet should consent. Yet the valley of the Ofanto from which Canosa emerges is anything but calm, if “calm” were not a word capable of deceit, like the tricks played by Hannibal around here, which convinced the enemy to array itself even against the wind, dust and sun.

A tormenting sun, like no other worthy of a valley located at one of those crossroads where different peoples have flung themselves without finding, not even in torrents of blood, the fusion that drove them into the fray, never to be found if it is necessary to believe and live.

In this field continents clashed: Africa and Rome, Byzantines and barbarians. This is the Crossroads of the Continents where the course, rise and decline of a great human feat was observed, from Canne to Benevento, according to the limits bitterly set by Dante when, thinking of Manfredi's defeat, he called Frederick II the last Caesar”.

(Giuseppe Ungaretti, Il deserto e dopo. Le Puglie. pp. 121-122.)

Photograph by "Lino et l'art de la photo".
© Lino Quagliarella (www.lqfoto.it).

For more info:
www.canosadipuglia.org - www.pugliaimperiale.it