Tourists for a week - Part 2

This is a bit late, but here is some tourist related activity from Steven and Bec's visit. We have Kushla and Laura with us this week so we get to be tour guides again.

Trani is a sea port of Pulgia on the Adriatic Sea, about 30 minutes north of Bari. In the middle ages it was a key port for the crusades, with many leaving for battle from there. There is still a Templar Knights Church in Trani which was the last stop for many befroe embarking on the hazardous sea journey.


Trani at sunset


Selling fresh fish


Dinner overlooking the boats


Cathedral - dedicated to St Nicholas. This is St Nicholas the Pilgrim (not Santa Claus St Nick from Bari), a Greek assassinated at Trani in 1094 and canonized by Urban II. It is in such a beautiful spot overlooking the sea.


Emperor Frederick II built a massive castle in Trani in the early 13th century which juts out onto the sea.

Trani has had a strong Jewish population. By the 12th century, Trani housed the largest Jewish community of Southern Italy. Jews were originally brought to Trani as salves during the time of the crusades and later began to thrive. Vica La Giudea (Jew Road) and others still exist in the Jewish quarter.

At one point there were four synangogues in Trani. The Jews were soon persecuted. The Scolanova Synagogue survives and, after many centuries as a church, has been rededicated as a synagogue.


On the sign outside the synagogue it mentions in Italian that the it was transformed into a church towards the end of 1400. In the English version it adds "(after the fall of the Jewish community)" which is no doubt a euphemism in itself. The road the synagogue is now called Via Scolanova but the old name which is still visible was Strada Stregatezze - Witchery Rd, which probably highlights the local attitude towards the Jews in those days.

By 1380 all of the four synagogues in Trani had been converted to churches and the 310 Jews remaining in the city forcibly converted to Christianity. The talmudist Rabbi Moses ben Joseph di Trani (1505–1585) was born in Thessaloniki, three years after his family had fled there from Trani due to antisemitic persecution.

The church of Sant'Anna is another medieval former synagogue which now houses artifacts from the Jewish history of the area.