WHAT TO SEE IN PUGLIA: Conversano Historic Center Walk | Secrets and Lies

Secret and lies # Conversano # Centrostorico # Cosavedere # Puglia
Conversano is an Italian town of 26,171 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Bari, in Puglia. It rises about 30 km south of Bari, on the first hills of the Murgia, at 219 m a.s.l. Of pre-Roman origin, in the 11th century it became the seat of a county extended over a significant part of central-southern Puglia whose importance was diminished only with the decline of the feudal structure. An important diocese and religious center since the Middle Ages, the town is now the seat of the diocese of Conversano-Monopoli.
The city that stands on a gentle hill at 219 s.l.m., dominates the surrounding area up to the Adriatic Sea which is about 8 km away. The surrounding landscape is typical of Puglia, very green, due to the presence of orchards, olive groves, vineyards, almond groves and above all cherry groves intended for export. It borders to the north with the municipality of Mola, to the north-east with Polignano, to the south-east with Castellana, to the south with Putignano, to the south-west with Turi and to the north-west with Rutigliano. The surface of the territory (127 km²) is one of the largest in the south-east of Bari.
The origins of the city date back to the Iron Age at the latest, when the indigenous peoples, iapige or peucete, founded a city named Norba on a hill higher than the surrounding area and endowed it with mighty stone walls (the toponym, not unique in Italy, in fact it would mean "fortified city").
The city had a happy location, placed as it was along an important road axis. This soon made it a thriving settlement, at the center of trade between the Magna Graecia colonies of the coast and the indigenous peoples of the interior. The large necropolis dating back to the 6th century BC in fact, it has returned dozens of tombs with rich funerary objects, partly of Hellenic origin.
In 268 BC, with the extension of Roman hegemony in Peucezia, Norba also lost its autonomy; nevertheless, it maintained an important role, as evidenced by the conspicuous findings of coins, armor, terracotta artifacts and jewels, thanks to the archaeological excavations carried out inside and outside the walls. The Peutingerian Table itself reports the toponym Norba, but the town did not survive the dissolution of the Western Empire, presumably by the Visigoths of Alaric who passed through Apulia in 411.