Knights, colonists and salt in the lower Tavoliere

Cerignola · Stornara · Stornarella · Zapponeta · FG

Four municipalities of the province of Foggia, from the southern part of the Tavoliere to the coast where the salt pans reach. The thread that links them, in the sources read, is the land and who owned it: the Teutonic Knights in the countryside of Cerignola, the Jesuits of the Collegio Romano at Stornara and Stornarella, the colonists settled by the king after their expulsion and, at Zapponeta, according to private sources, an 18th-century baron. Wheat appears in the sources only as a name (the Fosse del Grano); the wetlands lie just beyond Zapponeta, in neighbouring municipalities. It is a journey for those who read towns in archive papers more than in monuments.

The route

Day 1 — Cerignola

The day begins from the Piano delle Fosse del Grano, which Wikipedia lists among the city's monuments; how many pits there are and how they were used, the sources read do not say. They do give the size of the territory: 593.93 km² according to Wikipedia. The same entry recalls the fief of the Caracciolo from 1418 and of the Pignatelli in the 17th century. In 1503, according to Wikipedia, here the Spaniards of Gonzalo de Córdoba defeated the French of Louis d'Armagnac, duke of Nemours; and, writes the volume “Cerignola. Storia di una città” published in 2021 under municipal patronage, “the Spaniards became masters of the Kingdom of Naples for over two centuries”. The next day one goes out into the countryside, towards the knights.

Day 2 — Torre Alemanna and Stornara

In the countryside of Cerignola, about 18 km from the city, rises a quadrangular tower about 24 metres high and about 10 wide on each side: it is Torre Alemanna, which the University of Bari places in the Cerignola countryside and the FAI at Borgo Libertà, which Wikipedia gives as a hamlet of Cerignola. The reason lies in the donations: according to the Bari university the Teutonic Order accumulated land here through pious donations from lay people, purchases and, in September 1231, a substantial donation from Frederick II; the commandery became autonomous some months before July 1231, after having depended on that of Barletta. For the FAI the tower incorporated the choir of a pre-existing church, and the complex includes the Palazzo dell'Abate, a 16th-century church and a museum inaugurated on 27 June 2016. Inside, the University describes a pictorial cycle, four small columns with Gothic crocket capitals and the ribs of a cross vault; the FAI dates the ground-floor frescoes to the end of the 13th century. For the FAI, from 1483 the commandery passed to commendatory cardinals; for the University the fief was taken over by the Royal Treasury in 1789, the cisterns dug by ERSAP in 1951 caused “very serious damage” and in 1984 came the concession to the municipality for restoration. Opening hours are not in the pages read.

Then Stornara, in the basin of the Carapelle stream. The Ministry of Culture's record sums up its history in changes of ownership: fief of Giovanni Jacopo Cecere in the 16th century, bought by the Jesuits of the Collegio Romano in 1600, a royal agricultural colony after their expulsion in 1767, private property from 1793 to 1805, a hamlet of Stornarella from 1808, an autonomous municipality only in 1905. Of the original settlement there remains a ruined tower in river cobbles and courses of brick; the church of San Rocco is neoclassical, from 1856. Wikipedia recalls the Stornara Airfield, a field for B-24 bombers opened in January 1944 and closed in August 1945, now returned to farmland; italia.it tells of Stramurales, a street art festival organised by Stornara Life APS. The next day one goes to the municipality of which Stornara was a hamlet from 1808 to 1905.

Day 3 — Stornarella

The clock tower in Piazza Umberto I, today the municipal Library and Municipal Police, is the place to start from: according to the municipality, at the birth of the Università of Stornarella on 1 May 1808, ten decurions met there, six for Stornarella and four for Stornara. The town lies on a hill sloping down towards the Tavoliere, and the first sign of it that remains, in the sources read, is pastoral. The municipality recalls that the Tavoliere was linked for centuries to transhumance from Molise, Abruzzo and Sannio along the tratturi, under the Dogana delle pecore established by Alfonso I of Aragon with its seat in Foggia; the ministerial record of the historic centre cites the Relazione delle Locazioni of 1554, which records buildings in the mezzana above the poste of Rio Morto and the Cennarata. The name appears in the first years of the 17th century, when the Jesuits of the Collegio Romano took the fief: in the archives their rural residence is the “Residentia Asturnariensis”. Once the Jesuits were driven out at the end of 1767, their farmsteads, for the municipality intended at first for public education, then became the basis, with the addition of Carapelle, of five departments, the “Cinque Reali Siti”, with 410 colonists, 73 of whom were assigned to Stornarella. Of the Jesuits, the Ministry notes, no monumental evidence remains; their painting remains. In the apse of the church of Maria SS. della Stella, born as their chapel, the canvas by Antonio Marotta, 210 by 130 centimetres, dated 1614, replicates the Madonna and Child of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and surrounds it with Jesuit saints, Ignazio di Loyola, Francesco Saverio, Luigi Gonzaga, Stanislao Kostka; the ministerial record, updated in 2006, reported it in poor condition, with tears and paint losses. The altar of San Michele was erected in 1862 at the people's expense, with a statue that came from Monte Sant'Angelo. Outside, in the Parco della Rimembranza, of the 33 holm oaks planted 26 remained in 2019, when the Ministry drew up its record; the war memorial was inaugurated on 5 June 1927. The next day one goes down towards the sea.

Day 4 — Zapponeta and the edge of the salt pans

The municipality of Zapponeta, on its own website, devotes a single line to the church of San Michele Arcangelo: “small church located in the town square”. It is the only official information read. The rest comes from private sources: Wikipedia dates its founding to 1768, by baron Michele Zezza, and says it was a hamlet of Manfredonia until 1975. The reason to come this far is the coast. For italia.it the Riserva naturale Salina di Margherita di Savoia, established in 1977 over about 400 hectares, runs for about 20 km “from Margherita di Savoia to Zapponeta”, among pink flamingos and glassworts, and until 1878 was called “Saline di Barletta”; the Museo della Salina, however, is in Margherita di Savoia, in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. On the other side, in the municipality of Manfredonia, the WWF describes the Oasi Lago Salso: 1040 hectares born from the reclamation works of the Riforma Fondiaria, with over 300 species of birds. The 2015 map-guide “Discovering Puglia” traced from here the “Vie del sale” to Margherita, 18.8 km, a figure that no current source has confirmed. The journey, in our proposal, ends here.

DRAFT of 2026-11-08 · local only · gate run: PASSES WITH CORRECTIONS, 21 defects corrected · not approved