Explorar Bari

The Castello Normanno-Svevo is a moated castle at the edge of Bari's old town, probably begun around 1132 under the Norman king Roger II and rebuilt by Frederick II in 1233. Aragonese bastions surround its Swabian core of keep and walls; it later served as a prison and barracks and now holds exhibitions and a gallery of plaster casts.

Bari Cathedral, dedicated to Saint Sabinus, is an Apulian Romanesque church rebuilt from the late 12th century on the ruins of the Byzantine cathedral destroyed in 1156, and consecrated in 1292. Its front has three portals beneath a rose window framed by carved beasts, and below the nave lie remains of earlier churches with mosaic floors.

The Teatro Petruzzelli is Bari's opera house on Corso Cavour, built from 1898 to 1903 for the Petruzzelli brothers to a design by Angelo Messeni and the fourth-largest theatre in Italy. Fire gutted it in 1991; rebuilt and reopened in 2008, it stages opera, ballet and concerts and offers short guided tours of the foyer and auditorium.

The Basilica of Saint Nicholas is a Romanesque church in Bari's old town, begun in 1087 to house the relics of Saint Nicholas brought from Myra and consecrated in 1197. Its plain front stands between two low towers; inside are Abbot Elias's bishop's throne and a mosaic-decorated ciborium, and the crypt with 26 columns holds the saint's relics.