Discover the city

Brindisi

Messapian origins and the Roman age

Brindisi's origins reach back to the Bronze Age, as attested by Mycenaean finds at Punta le Terrare (16th c. BC), and to the later Messapian settlement: the Tor Pisana necropolis has yielded proto-Corinthian vases from the 7th c. BC. Conquered by Rome in 267 BC and granted municipal status in 240 BC, Brindisi became the main port of the Empire towards the East: here ended the Via Appia — still marked today by the famous columns in Proconnesian marble — and the later Via Traiana. The ancient urban fabric survives in the archaeological area of San Pietro degli Schiavoni, with its paved street, shops and thermal baths, and in the domus unearthed in via Casimiro.

Middle Ages, fortifications and harbour

After the Gothic War and repeated Saracen raids, the city was refounded at the beginning of the 11th century by the Byzantine protospatharius Lupus, to whom we owe the inscription on the harbour Columns. The Normans took it in 1070 and Frederick II of Swabia married Isabella of Brienne in the Cathedral in 1225, promoting the Swabian Castle (1227) and the expansion of the arsenal. From this period survive the Romanesque Cathedral, the circular church of San Giovanni al Sepolcro, Santa Maria del Casale and San Paolo Eremita, masterpieces of Apulian Gothic. To defend the port, in 1445 Ferrante of Aragon began, on the island of Sant'Andrea, the Castello Alfonsino, later expanded between the 16th and 17th centuries into the fortified complex of Forte a Mare.

The managed cultural sites

In Brindisi, the Associazione Le Colonne manages the Castello Alfonsino - Forte a Mare at the entrance to the port, and the Palazzina del Belvedere with the Faldetta Archaeological Collection, dedicated to artefacts documenting the area from the Messapian to the Roman age.

Points of interest

Explore the points of interest on the map. In the full map you can click on each point to discover historical and cultural information.

Archaeological sites (7) Coast and sea (1) Historic buildings (10) Churches (8) Points of interest (2) Monuments (9) Museums (1) Nature and landscape (1) Squares and urban spaces (4)