page_title: Canosa di Puglia
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Canosa di Puglia / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Medievale mappa della città di Canosa
context_page_description: Canosa di Puglia, generally known simply as Canosa, is a town and comune in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located between Bari and Foggia, on the northwestern edge of the plateau of the Murgia which dominates the Ofanto valley and the extensive plains of Tavoliere delle Puglie, ranging from Mount Vulture at the Gargano, to the Adriatic coast. Canosa, the Roman Canusium, is considered the principal archaeological center of Apulia, and is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in Italy. A number of vases and other archaeological finds are located in local museums and private collections. It is not far from the position on the Ofanto River where the Romans found refuge after the defeat of the Battle of Cannae and is the burial place of Bohemund I of Antioch.
context_section_description: The city continued to flourish into the early medieval period, when it became known as the "city of bishops". Some of its bishops are known from the 4th century. Bishop Stercorius took part in the 343 Council of Sardica, and Bishop Probus intervened decisively against a Spanish bishop who wanted to name his own successor in a council convoked at Rome by Pope Hilarius in 465. The diocese reached its apogee under St Sabinus (514–566), who subsequently was honored as the town's patron saint.
  The area suffered severely at the hands of the Lombards during the invasion that established the Duchy of Benevento and the Muslim invasions which followed. In the early 9th century, Muslims entirely destroyed the town and, in 844, Bishop Angelarius translated the relics of SS Rufinus, Memorus, and Sabinus to Bari. Soon after, Pope Sergius II confirmed him as the bishop of Bari and Canosa, a united title borne by Bari's archbishops until 1986. (It remains a titular see.)
  In 963, Canosa was rebuilt at a site below the former Roman city. It remained a Lombard gastaldate until the Norman conquest that established the Kingdom of Sicily. Under Bohemund I of Antioch (d. 1111), son of Robert Guiscard, it regained some of its earlier importance. The 5-domed cathedral of St Sabinus was completed in 1101. Bohemund's tomb is located just to its south. Following the extirpation of the Hohenstaufens, however, it again went into decline.
caption: Medieval map of Canosa.
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