How many things can be hidden in the folds of your toga? Treasure all the anecdotes, curiosities and insights collected in this column, carry them "in your pocket" and, if necessary, take them out to amaze everyone with your knowledge!

In the Folds of the Toga

No rules, just one truth: art is for everyone! 
Join our art club and satiate your hunger for culture, (but be careful, it could cause Independence)!

Art Without Rules

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Hidden artworks in Disney classics

Canosa di Puglia has always been famous for being an archaeological centre of fundamental importance in Puglia and throughout the Italian peninsula, thanks to the many settlements present in the area. Discover all the cultural activities available right now and buy your ticket directly online (safely and with just a few clicks!).


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What to see in Canosa di Puglia

Canosa di Puglia

The modern center of Canosa di Puglia is rich in archaeological evidence, collected inside the city museum.

The modern center of **Canosa di Puglia** is rich in archaeological evidence, collected inside the city museum.


Visit it together with an expert guide, who will be able to show you the wonders of this place!


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Canosa di Puglia National Archaeological Museum Guided Tour

Guided Tour

Canosa di Puglia’s multiple sites, most of which can be visited, bear witness to a thousands years long history that has seen them seamless protagonists from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. 


**The National Archaeological Museum**

The modern center of Canosa di Puglia, a few kilometers away from Barletta and Castel del Monte, on a small hill overlooking the Tavoliere and the Ofanto valley, is very rich in archaeological evidence, collected in the city museum.

Housed in a building from the late 19th century, **Palazzo Sinesi**, the National Archaeological Museum displays artefacts from ancient tombs and rich **Hellenistic hypogea**, testifying to the customs and mentality of Canosa society and the high quality of local craftsmanship between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC. 

**A flourishing Daunian centre**

The birth of the museum is closely linked to the city. The territory has been occupied since the Bronze Age. In the Archaic period and between the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. it saw an increasingly uniform distribution of inhabited areas and socially significant groups begin to emerge. Between the 5th and 4th centuries, the dominant groups consolidated their political and economic positions and Canosa became **one of the most important centres in Daunia**. 

The most significant archaeological documentation from this period is the hypogea, **underground tombs** dug into the natural tuff bank, and their opulent **grave goods**, a symbol in the 4th century BC of the importance of those particular families within the community.

**Original ceramic production**

The exhibits in the museum testify to the outstanding abilities of the local craftsmen when it came to ceramics. In fact, Canosa is one of the most active centres for the production of typical **Daunian subgeometrical pottery**. The large vessels, jugs and vases for dipping, pouring and drinking found among grave goods, reflect **forms of conviviality linked to funerals** and stand out for their high quality and variety of decoration. 

From the second half of the 4th century B.C., **wealthy Canosans** began to purchase Apulian red-figure vases as grave goods. To meet the demands of the new local clientele, some craftsmen moved their workshops to the Daunian area, giving rise to new techniques for assembling and decorating vases that led to the birth of a highly original line of products: **polychrome and plastic pottery**, known as canosina. The grave goods from the **Hypogeum of vico San Martino**, exhibited in the second room of the Museum, are made up of many examples of Apulian red-figure pottery which flank the vases of the Daunian tradition and other prestigious goods such as weapons and metals.

**A tomb of extraordinary nobility**

Discovered in 1912, the **Varrese Hypogeum** belonged to a prominent Canosa family for several generations from the mid-4th century until the end of the following century. This chamber tomb has yielded more than 400 artefacts, now on display in the last three rooms of the museum. The hypogeum did not only turn up large Apulian red-figure vases decorated with scenes from mythology (Apulian red-figure phiale, 315-330 BC), but also a very well-preserved set of Canosan vases, characterised by rich polychromy and the addition of **applied decorative elements** (polychrome and plastic Askos, late 4th century BC).


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Canosa di Puglia National Archaeological Museum

A stroll through the ages in Canosa di Puglia 

Canosa di Puglia’s multiple sites, most of which can be visited, bear witness to a thousands years long history that has seen them seamless protagonists from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages.                              

What to see in Canosa di Puglia

Canosa di Puglia

Canosa di Puglia

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