Bari

Bari stands on the Adriatic coast of Apulia, its old town gathered on a peninsula between harbour and sea. The basilica of Saint Nicholas houses relics brought from Myra in 1087, drawing pilgrims from both the Latin and Greek Christian worlds. Its castle and cathedral mark the long history of a port facing the eastern Mediterranean.

In the sixteenth century the duchy belonged to Bona Sforza, queen of Poland as well as duchess of Bari. She administered it from afar before returning to Italy in 1556 and establishing her court in the castle. Bona died there the following year. Her daughter Anna commissioned a tomb in the great basilica of Saint Nicholas, linking Bari's great shrine to its last Sforza ducal ruler.