San_Severo
Art, monuments and urban design
San Severo retains a remarkable historical center, dotted with significant monuments, which on February 2, 2006 it received recognition as an art city. The center, defined by the perimeter wall punctuated by seven gates, now completely dismantled, was deeply affected by the terrible earthquake of July 30, 1627. It retains its medieval labyrinthine road system. It is rich in Baroque monuments mainly as mansions (de Petris, del Sordo, de Lucretiis, Fraccacreta, Mascia, Recca, de Ambrosio, to Pozzo, Summantico etc.), the three Benedictine monasteries (now the seat of the Court), of Celestine (town hall from 1813) and Franciscans (seat of the Municipal Library and Museum), and the churches of Santa Maria della Pieta and San Lorenzo (both national monuments) and St. Nicholas and the Trinity. At the center is the Church of San Severino (also a National Monument), dedicated to the first and principal patron of the city and diocese, which preserves the external Romanesque perspective, with a rose window and fine stone archway. The vast cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta, is the result of numerous rearrangements, in preserves, among other things, an invaluable font of the twelfth century and important eighteenth-century paintings (D'Elia, Spring, and Solimena). Other religious buildings of historic and artistic interest are the Church of St. John the Baptist (with paintings by Nicola Menzel) and the churches of Santa Maria del Carmine (great domes painted by Mario Borgoni), Saint Augustine (sanctuary), St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony Abbot, Holy Cross, St. Mary of Constantinople (Capuchin), San Sebastian, Santa Lucia, Santa Maria delle Grazie and San Matteo (or San Bernardino). Interesting are also the Bishop's Palace, altered several times, and the seventeenth-century Palazzo del Seminario, significantly expanded in the nineteenth century. The imposing Teatro Comunale, the largest theater building in Capitanata and among the largest of Puglia, which opened in 1937 and dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi. The large public garden with century old avenues that converge on an artificial mound called Montagnella, has an elegant platform with bronze statues and a large round stage for concerts. Among the flower beds are placed a few small monuments, among them are the marble bust of Matteo Tondi, a work created in 1837 by Tito Angelini. Noteworthy, too, are several large public buildings built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, including the kindergarten "Matteo Trotta (1899), the Nursing Home "Concetta Masselli"(1902), the Hospital Teresa Masselli-Male "(1906) and the school building dedicated by Umberto of Savoy, the April 29, 1923. While there are isolated buildings, the city, after the thirteenth major extension linked to the construction of new walls and the transformation of the old wall circuit in a major ring road, coincided with the town center - a maze of streets and lanes winding between large and sometimes huge blocks - roughly until the seventeenth century. After the earthquake of 1627 and the gradual removal of walls, the town expanded beyond the defensive wall. New districts were added to different neighborhoods (including Borgo Casale, the Village and the Bear quarter of the Jews). Thus were born the town districts of Catacubbi (or Grace), the neighborhood above the Rosary and the Porto Lucera, in San Antonio, Foggia Porta and Porta San Marco. To contain the damage caused by frequent earthquakes, buildings normally do not exceed two floors (and often were reduced to low ground floors and whitewashed gable roofs). The Patrician Palace, and major ecclesiastical architecture (main churches and monasteries), which are crowned by domes and steeples face more of a challenge during earthquakes. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the town continued to expand and the city constructed vast squares, like Piazza Cavallotti Coronation, and large tree-lined streets, such as the avenue of  Corso Garibaldi and Viale Matteotti. The high artistic and architectural heritage of the Sanseveresi does not end in the urban area: the commune is full of farms, with centuries-old often fortified rural architecture. Among the more prominent farms are the Torretta, del Sordo, Tabanaro, Scoppa, St. Matthew, Antonacci and Tower of Reeds.