Bitonto · Palo del Colle · Bitetto · Binetto · Grumo Appula · BA
Five comuni in the province of Bari, read through their stones: a Romanesque cathedral, a castle turned into a palace, at Palo, medieval walls enlarged to take in new inhabitants. The sources do genuinely interweave some of these centres: an architect from Bitonto signs a bell tower at Palo del Colle, a coalition with Bitonto destroys the casale from which a borgo of Palo is born, Grumo was a Roman municipium like Butuntum, Binetto, according to the GAL Nuovo Fior d'Olivi, was joined to Grumo from 1927 to 1946. The theme of oil, on the other hand, holds only in part: it is documented at Bitonto, at Bitetto with its termite olive, in the olive groves of the territory of Palo; for Binetto and Grumo the sources read are silent. The set of five comuni, the order of the stages and the days are our proposal.
At a glance
Duration. 4 days.
The route
Day 1 — Bitonto
The Romanesque cathedral, built between the 11th and 12th centuries, looks to the model of San Nicola di Bari: so say both the collection of records of the Famiglie della Visitazione and Wikipedia. On the central portal the architrave tells the Annunciation, Visitation, Epiphany and Presentation; along the south side runs a loggia of six hexaforas and opens the Porta della scomunica, which the same collection links to Gregory IX and to the excommunication of Frederick II in 1227. Inside, the same collection describes the ambo of 1229, which bears the inscription "HOC OPUS FECIT NICOLAUS SACERDOS ET MAGISTER", a priest and master, and on the parapet of the stair the Swabian emperors Frederick I, Henry VI, Frederick II and Conrad. Below, according to the same collection, the crypt rests its vaults on 36 reused columns and gives access to an early Christian church, with an 11th-century mosaic in which a griffin appears. Of the oil the Comune writes that it is the "symbolic product of the territory", and in the nineteenth century the French engineer Pierre Ravanas brought there the first hydraulic pump for oil; Bitonto, the Comune writes again, was the first Puglia town to formally establish its own Comunità dell'Olio. In piazza Cavour, where the Torrione Angioino also stands, a loggia leads to the Galleria Nazionale della Puglia "Girolamo e Rosaria Devanna", of the Ministry of Culture. The Parco naturale regionale Lama Balice became an Ente Parco with an amendment to the law approved by the regional Council, announced by the Comune in December 2024. The link with the next day is a name: the Bitonto architect Vito Valentini.
Day 2 — Palo del Colle
At Palo del Colle Valentini designed in 1734, according to the Ministry of Culture's record, the bell tower of the church of the Purgatorio in piazza Santa Croce, built between 1669 and 1673; the expenditure recorded between 1669 and 1679 was 7081 ducats; the façade dates from 1708, with an octagonal sundial at the centre and three statues of 1722 by Carlo Altieri of Giovinazzo. The shape of the town, according to the ministry's record, grew through successive borghi. The ministry's record of the historic centre, "defensive", relates that in 1349 a Hungarian-Bitontine coalition destroyed the Casal d'Auricarro: the inhabitants moved to Palo and the Borgo degli Auricarrini was born, with a new fourteenth-century circuit of walls; in 1454 the Greeks who arrived after the fall of Constantinople gave life to the south-east to the Borgo degli Ortodossi, with its walls and the Porta dei Trappeti. The castle was the residence of Bona Sforza in 1546 and in 1774 Giovanbattista Filomarino della Rocca transformed it into a princely palace. Santa Maria La Porta was raised in the 12th century, according to its record: it has a crypt with five aisles and dates of remodelling marked on the pillars: 1531 on the left pillar of the façade and 1588 on those of the apse. All around, again according to the Ministry, a territory of olive groves, vineyards and almond orchards crossed by three lame, protected since 1985.
Day 3 — Bitetto
The cathedral of Bitetto, known as San Michele Arcangelo, in piazza del Popolo, was begun in 1335 under Bishop Giacomo Bonocore II by adapting a pre-existing church; the Ministry of Culture's record reports the inscription "PER MAGISTRUM LILLIUM DE BAROLO". The portal rests its columns on stylophore lions, the extradosed domes are clad in majolica. From 1735, under Bishop Francesco Franco, the nave was lengthened by over ten metres and the interior plastered; in 1744 came the presbytery and dome. It was a cathedral because Bitetto was an episcopal see: Wikipedia recalls that in 1818 the diocese was incorporated into that of Bari. Towards Grumo, about a kilometre from the historic centre according to the FAI, stands the sanctuary of the Beato Giacomo: in 1432 Pope Eugene IV granted the request of the Università of Bitetto to settle the Friars Minor there, who arrived the following year from Santa Caterina di Galatina. The beato, a Croatian friar, died in 1496; according to the FAI, the body, believed incorrupt, was buried in the sanctuary in 1587. The same sanctuary houses the Museo della Devozione e del Lavoro, with farm tools from the early twentieth century. In the fields, writes the italia.it portal, the termite olive is grown, celebrated with a sagra at the end of September. The next day you follow the road towards Grumo.
Day 4 — Binetto and Grumo Appula
Binetto is the comune with the least material, and it should be said. The history published by the Comune is, however, precise: in 1085 a deed drawn up in Bari bears the cross of the feudal lord Umfredo; in 1181 the lord Robertus de Benetto paid 260 ounces of gold in feudal taxes, more than the neighbouring feudal lords; in 1799 the tree of liberty was planted there and in 1820 a Vendita Carbonara had its seat there. The comune's website has no records of monuments: the church of the Assunta, built between 1198 and 1203 with elements of Puglia Romanesque, is described by the GAL Nuovo Fior d'Olivi, which also recalls how in 1927 Binetto was joined to Grumo Appula and regained its autonomy in 1946.
Grumo, according to the ministry's record of the historic centre, in the 4th century BC was called Grumum and minted coins with equine and bovine effigies; in Roman times it was a municipium like Butuntum and Rubi. The record describes, in the borgo of the late 11th-early 12th century, a circuit wall with a moat, and today's piazza Mercato had the ancient name of "sopra il muro"; where palazzo Mannaro Scippa stands today there was a castle from the time of Manfred. The Matrice di Santa Maria Assunta preserves in the Cappella del Sacramento its oldest part, from the late thirteenth century; the façade dates from 1946. The present name, recalls the news site grumonline.it, came with a decree of 4 January 1863, and on 3 July 1914 the Acquedotto Pugliese brought water to ten drinking fountains. The journey, in our proposal, ends here.
DRAFT of 2026-11-08 · local only · gate run: PASSES WITH CORRECTIONS, 17 defects corrected · not approved