The old town of Bari is called by the Italians Bari Vecchia, that means "Old Bari". In most European cities, medieval blocks were demolished in order to build larger blocks with wide streets and larger houses in their place. In Bari, the old quarter is preserved as it was several centuries ago.
The first settlement on the site of Bari appeared in the Bronze age 3 thousand years BC. However, the earliest buildings found by archaeologists belong to the ancient Greek period of the 5th century BC. After the war with Pyrrhus in the 3rd century BC, the Romans settled here.
An important milestone for Old Bari was the beginning of the 19th century. At that time many cities significantly changed their layout, destroyed the medieval quarters. In those years, Bari was part of the Kingdom of Naples under the protectorate of France. Napoleon`s Marshal Joachim Murat, after marrying his sister Caroline, received the title of king of the Kingdom of Naples in 1808.
He decided in 1813 to build a New Town of Bari to the South of the Old one. Now this area with wide streets and spacious houses is called the Murat District. The old medieval quarter with narrow streets remained untouched. Life in this quarter has stopped, as it was. There was no water supply system or sewer. That’s why by the 20th century it was a dirty slum quarter where only beggars lived.
In the early 2000s, the entire block was completely renovated. All modern facilities were made here, the houses were cleaned and restored. As a result, the Old city of Bari is now one of the largest neighborhoods in Europe, which has completely preserved its medieval appearance. The most interesting sights of Bari are located inside this quarter.
Residential buildings in Old Bari were mostly built in the 18th and 19th century. But in many places there are still houses or fragments of earlier periods. Most of the houses in the old quarter look shabby, but this is typical of the south of Italy, just like the Laundry hanging on the street.
The layout of Old Bari is chaotic. All the streets are winding. Many of them has dead ends. There are no restaurants or cafes, only small shops. Tourists come here with an excursion, but they prefer to live in New Bari, where living is more comfortable for a modern person.
In addition to all the main attractions of Bari, several dozen old churches have been preserved in the old quarter. Many of them are several centuries old. Closer to the port in the Benedictine monastery is a very interesting Archaeological Museum of St. Scholastica. This is the oldest part of Bari, where in the 5th century there was a settlement of ancient Greeks.
