Bari – four-fifths of Saint Nicholas

On the train I overheard – what do I know about the city I am arriving in? Bari is two and a half millennia old. They say it was founded by the Peuceti, an ancient people who, having crossed the Adriatic, left their mark on Apulia, especially around Bari. This means that the ancestors of the people here were in some way relatives of our pre-Slavic Balkan ancestors.

That's exactly how I feel - I'm visiting relatives. The Greek cultural layer - as everywhere in southern Italy - was dominant for a long time, until the masters became Romans, three centuries before Christ. They left the name of the city - Barium. After the fall of Rome, the masters changed, from Goths to Lombards. Even the Arabs ruled here for several decades. Byzantium returned in the 10th century - Bari was its main center on the Adriatic. Until the appearance of the Normans.

We get off at Bari Centrale train station. The city that presents itself to my eye is actually a child of the Napoleonic era. The wide streets and beautiful parks are part of modern planning, outside the medieval core.

We stop for a moment in the park near the local university. The surrounding cafes are already filling up. And we set off in search of our cup of coffee. First, we head to one of the city's main boulevards - Korzo Kavur.

I have to admit that I didn't expect what I saw – a lively, spacious street with 19th-century buildings, interesting shop windows, wide sidewalks.

In my boyish imagination of this city, Bari – like all large ports – took on the appearance of a chaotic dock for ships, accompanied by a swarm of shady taverns on the shore, from which drunken sailors were thrown out. None of that. At first glance, Bari reminds me more of Trieste than of Naples.

THEATERS AND ARSONERS

Our attention is drawn to the red building on the other side of the street. The Petruceli Theater is a cultural symbol of Bari, the fourth largest theater in Italy and one of the most important opera houses in Europe.

The theater was built in 1903 by the brothers Onofrio and Antonio Petruceli, powerful merchants and shipbuilders. The stage shone in full glory until it was destroyed by arson in 1991. Although the perpetrator was punished, it could not be legally proven that the client was the then manager who had accumulated debts, in collaboration with the local mafia who hoped for lucrative renovation contracts. The theater, after a long reconstruction, only reopened in 2009.

The entire area around the theater is beautifully decorated and peaceful. There we find a place where we will spend pleasant moments. The smell of coffee and pastries, Italians who enter, drink espresso with their feet, exchange a few words and leave. The melody of a language that was created for canzones.

We turn onto Sparano Street, a representative pedestrian zone. It has, of course, all the shops and boutiques that one would see in any major European city. I certainly find some playful facades from the Art Nouveau era pleasing to the eye.

We cross Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, which separates the old and new town. Before heading into the stone labyrinth, we go to the shore to visit the fish market. It stretches along the St. Nicholas Pier. Locals and tourists come here for the so-called “fisherman’s breakfast” – raw cuttlefish, mussels, octopus, sea urchins and oysters are eaten with a cold beer. If you come early in the morning, you can see fishermen rhythmically banging freshly caught octopuses against the concrete pier to soften their flesh before eating.

We have no intention of trying this “bar sushi.” One morning we will head east from here, along the Nazario Sauro Promenade. This coastal boulevard is famous for its monumental fascist architecture from the 20s and its endless line of elegant black lamps along the sea.

This morning we stay here to enjoy the view. In front of us is the Teatro Margherita, the only theatre in Europe built on stilts in the water in 1914. The city of Bari had previously signed an official contract with the Petruceli family, under which they committed themselves not to build any other theatres on city land. To circumvent this contractual obligation, the resourceful city leaders decided to build the theatre on the water, since the seabed did not legally belong to the city’s building land. At the time of its opening, the theatre could only be reached from the mainland via a wooden pier. Today the theatre is the Museum of Contemporary Art. To the right of the theatre I recognise the bell tower of the Cathedral of Saint Sabine. It will serve as our guide.

BYZANTINE COUNTRY

Although the place we enter with a leisurely stroll existed several thousand years ago, the urban network of the Old Town as we know it today – with narrow, winding streets that served as easier defense against attackers – was formed during the 10th and 11th centuries, under Byzantine rule.

The moments spent in that labyrinth are actually like joyful sparks – on every corner, in every passage, there is a detail worth remembering.

Since we stayed near the cathedral, our stay in Bari would consist largely of wandering through the old town's alleys. We visited some of them several times, and we only found some just before leaving. We would sit on the city walls, which had been transformed into a beautiful promenade, in the evening. On one side was the Adriatic, on the other a labyrinth. We were in the middle, with a glass of wine in our hands.

One place in the city is world-famous. The Basilica of Saint Nicholas. The story of its construction is actually the story of the transfer of the relics of Saint Nicholas. Three ships, with a crew of 62, including priests, sailed from Bari to Myra in the spring of 1087. Officially, it was a grain trade. On April 20, 1087, the sailors entered the church in Myra, overpowered the Greek monks, broke open the marble sarcophagus, and took the saint's relics. In Bari, these religious commandos were welcomed with a public feast on May 9, 1087. Immediately after their arrival, construction began on the Basilica of Saint Nicholas, where the relics still rest in the crypt today.

In the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks conquered much of Asia Minor, including Myra. The Christian West was convinced that the saint's relics were in imminent danger of destruction or desecration. The theft was therefore presented as a heroic act of saving a Christian relic. There were even more amusing theological stunts. It was believed that no one could steal the relics unless the saint himself allowed it. Since the sailors successfully carried out the operation and arrived safely in Bari, this was interpreted as a clear sign that Saint Nicholas had chosen to leave Myra and move to the West.

This was not an isolated case. The Middle Ages were known for a phenomenon called furta sacra in Latin - sacred or pious theft. Relics were the most valuable possessions of a city. They brought political power, protection and huge sums of money from pilgrims. Venice similarly stole the relics of Saint Mark from Alexandria in 828, justifying it with a higher religious purpose.

What we today legally and morally define as armed robbery and kidnapping was celebrated in the 11th century as a godly deed and a triumph of the Christian world.

The Byzantine clergy were naturally not enthusiastic. The Russian Orthodox Church soon accepted this event and introduced it into its calendar. The Serbs also celebrate this day as the Summer Saint Nicholas. After all, the Nemanjić dynasty generously donated this church, and in 1346, Emperor Dušan issued a charter in Skopje ordering the Dubrovnik Republic to allocate a fixed sum from the annual tribute they paid to the Serbian ruler for the basilica in Bari. This is one of the rare points on the globe where there is harmony between the Catholic and Orthodox worlds. Orthodox liturgies are held in the crypt on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Interestingly, the sailors from Mirna brought only four-fifths of the bones of Saint Nicholas. In their haste, they took the largest bones and the skull. Twelve years after the sailors left for Bari, the Venetians sent their ships on the First Crusade. They too raided the church in Mirna. They were furious because Bari had overtaken them. They tortured the Greek monks until they revealed the secret place in the church where the rest of the relics were hidden. They then claimed that they alone had the real Saint Nicholas. The dispute was resolved by science in the 20th century – the bones from Venice and the bones from Bari belong to the same person. In the ratio, eighty percent Bari, twenty percent Venice.

SINGING BARS

In Bari, of course, as everywhere in southern Italy, the food is good. In the evening, all the restaurants in the connected squares of Ferrarese and Mercantile are full. In one of the bars at the entrance to the old town, we found a musical mood. First, Roma musicians with trumpets were playing through the garden. And then the owner sang Let me singThe hit that Toto Cutugno left behind in 1983 for all time, here in Bari, received applause from guests and curious people who gathered to listen to the loud-throated boss.

One evening we sat in a pizzeria on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and marveled at the size of the pizza. Of course it was excellent. But what we ate in Naples remains beyond all categories.

Still, one place would have to win an award for unparalleled authenticity. Pizzeria The Rustic in the new part of the city is a true legend among locals and tourists because of its unique concept of a fixed menu that costs around 12 euros per person.

We were lucky and came right after opening at 7pm. Before the pizza even arrived on the table, the waiters were piling plates on us – bringing focaccia, bruschetta, various types of prosciutto and salami, mozzarella, olives, mussels and seasonal vegetables. Wine is included in the price. After the appetizers we were full, but we chose pizza – so as not to waste it. Limoncello was for dessert. The atmosphere was noisy and relaxed. It would be a sin to be in Bari and not go to The Rustic.

After gastronomic art, we were ready for painting.

By chance, we discovered an exhibition of a painter named Aligi Sasso in an old town street. He lived from 1912 to 2000. He was one of the most important Italian painters, sculptors and graphic artists of the 20th century. At the age of 16, he exhibited at the prestigious Venice Biennale, attracting the attention of the founder of Futurism, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. In the 1930s, as a co-founder of the influential anti-fascist art movement Current (Struja) spends two years in prison.

I spent the longest time with his painting The Night Watchmen.

We leave the former Baroque church of Santa Teresa dei Maski, which today serves as a center for contemporary art and the Museum of Natural Pigments.

This fireworks display of colors, a summary of the entire artistic life of an Italian, will remain for me the cherry on the cake without which our stay in Bari would have been less harmonious.

Of course, I have to mention another cult place of the pagan religion called football. That place in Bari is called – Stadion Sveti Nikola. It was there that a Belgrade club won its first and only European Cup title back in 1991.

On our way out of Bari, I remember that we spent several nights just a few hundred meters from Saint Nicholas, as the church likes to call him. There are souvenirs with his image everywhere.

And he is the protector of travelers. Travelers address him thus: "Help me, the helpless one, and deliver me from all the dangers that lurk on this journey. Be my companion and protector, calm the winds and the turbulent sea, remove from my path all misfortune, evil people and sudden destruction."

Protection from evil people is especially a blessing for a traveler – it will save us from other troubles.