Manfredonia

Manfredonia stands on the Apulian coast at the foot of the Gargano. King Manfred founded the town in 1256 to provide a healthier site for the inhabitants of ancient Siponto. He began its castle in the same year; Charles I of Anjou later completed it.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the harbor was an active outlet for grain from the Capitanata plain. The castle resisted French troops in 1528, but in 1620 Ottoman forces devastated both the fortress and the town. The port later declined as its waters silted up, before reviving in the modern period.