Volturara Appula is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the

province of Foggia The Province of Foggia ( it, Provincia di Foggia ; Foggiano: ) is a province in the Apulia (Puglia) region of southern Italy. This province is also known as Daunia, after the Daunians, an Iapygian pre-Roman tribe living in Tavoliere plain, an ...

in the Apulia region of southeast

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Once a flourishing city, the comune now has a population of less than 400.

History

The date of his foundation is not known; the first historical paper citing it, is a document of Pope Giovanni (John) XIII that, in 969 A.D., lists Volturara as a bishopric, depending from Benevento. Vulturaria, as it was previously called, was ruled in various times by its bishops, and by a number of noble families, including a branch of Caracciolos that built the so said 'Dukedom Palace'.Official website of Volturara Appula
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Main sights

The Apulian Romanesque cathedral was built in the 13th century. It has a massive bell-tower with three bells of bronze with a noteworthy percentage of silver. Another church, the 16th-century Santuario di Maria SS. della Sanità (Shrine of Our Lady of Health) was reputedly built by Marquis Bartolomeo Caracciolo in thanksgiving for recovery from illness.

Bishopric

Its

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

, the

Diocese of Vulturara The Diocese of Vulturara (Latin: ''Dioecesis Vulturariensis'') was a Roman Catholic diocese located in the town of Vulturara (modern day Volturara Appula) in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. It was erected in 1059. In ...

, was united with that of

Diocese of Montecorvino Motta Montecorvino ( Pugliese: ) is a town, ''comune'' (municipality), former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy. The city was losing its population in the early 15th century, and t ...

to form the Diocese of Vulturara e Montecorvino in 1433.Giuseppe Cappelletti
''Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni''
Venezia 1864, vol. XIX, pp. 293-303 Giuseppe Cappelletti gives detailed information about most of its bishops. In 1818, upon a reorganization of the dioceses within the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the diocese ceased to exist as a residential see and its territory became part of the

diocese of Lucera In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. It is now included in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

's list of

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

s.''Ánnuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 1010

People

Giuseppe Conte Giuseppe Conte (; born 8 August 1964) is an Italian jurist, academic, and politician who served as prime minister of Italy from June 2018 to February 2021. He has been the president of the Five Star Movement (M5S) since August 2021. Conte ...

, the Prime Minister of Italy in 2018-2021 was born in Volturara, but grew up in

San Giovanni Rotondo San Giovanni Rotondo is the name of a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia and region of Apulia, in southern Italy. San Giovanni Rotondo was the home of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina from 28 July 1916 until his death on 23 September 1968. Th ...

References

External links

Pictures of Volturara Appula
Cities and towns in Apulia Catholic titular sees in Europe {{Apulia-geo-stub