Foggia and its lovely surroundings

Foggia is one of the 5 Provinces of the Apulia Region.

This Province is also known as Capitanata because during Middle Ages it was governed by a Capatano (old Italian for Captain).

Its capital is the city of Foggia.

• Population: about 200,000.
• Population name: Foggiani.
• Phone Prefix: (0039) 0881.
• Zip Code: 71100.
• Our City Hall Address:
• Corso Garibaldi, 58
• Via Antonio Gramsci, 17
• 71100 Foggia.
• Phone Numbers:
• (+39) 0881.792.111;
• 0881.814.111.
• Fax: (+39) 0881-721615.

Foggia is the native city of the famous opera composer Umberto Giordano.

Other important centres are: 

• San Giovanni Rotondo, home of Padre Pio from Pietrelcina and place of the church devoted to him;
• Vieste and Peschici, on the Gargano, are famous for their very nice beaches; they attract tourists from all over Italy and from abroad;
• Lucera, residence of Frederick II at the beginning of the 13th century;
• Cerignola, native town of philologist Nicola Zingarelli, founder of the Zingarelli Italian dictionary and syndicalist Giuseppe Di Vittorio;
• Troia, with its famous Cathedral of the 10th century; Margherita di Savoia, major centre of salt production; Faeto and Celle San Vito where people have been speaking a rare dialect of the Franco-Provencal language since the 14th century. Such a dialect, called Faetar, is spoken only by 1,400 people in the world!

Foggia is believed to have been founded by the inhabitants of Arpi (also called Argyrippa, Greek Argos Hippion), a Greek and Roman town that declined after the Second Punic War (3rd century BC); the ruins of Arpi are a short distance north. Foggia may have been named for local pits or cellars (Latin foveae; still called fogge) that were used either for grain storage or to supply drinking water for sheep. It was the favourite seat of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.

The city later passed to Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily, who died there in 1285. From 1447 to 1806 it was a centre for the collection of the sheep tax on flocks migrating between highlands and plains. After the Restoration following the Napoleonic Wars, it became a centre for Carbonari revolutionary societies and took a vigorous part in the revolts of 1820, 1848, and 1860 against the Kingdom of Naples.

The capture of the Foggia military airfields in 1943 was an important action in consolidating the Allied position in Southern Italy in World War II. Partially destroyed by an earthquake in 1731 and severely damaged in World War II, Foggia has been rebuilt along modern lines. Only a door remains of the Palace of Fedrerick II but the Cathedral, begun by William II the Good, King of Sicily, with Baroque alterations, survives. There is a museum, a picture gallery, and a library whose archives also include those of the sheep tax. Foggia lies on the main railway from Bologna to Bari and is also connected by rails with Naples. A major wool market for centuries, Foggia is also an important agricultural centre for the wheat, vegetables, olives, grapes, fruit, tobacco, and cheese of Apulia Tableland (the so-called Tavoliere).