View from the terrace near the cathedral.
Gravina in Puglia lies nestled in a valley on the Bradanic slope of the Alta Murgia.
The town stands dramatically on the edge of a deep ravine - known locally as a "gravina".
Gravina is the home of the Alta Murgia National Park.

Thanks to its strategic position, Gravina has a very ancient history.
Its territory has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, due to the high presence of water and woods. The largest remains date back to the Neolithic.
The town was colonized by the Greeks and became a polis with the right to mint its own coinage. Later it was ruled by Byzantines, Lombards and North African Muslims.
The town was also the site of a Norman countship in the Hauteville Kingdom of Sicily and in the later Kingdom of Naples.
From 1386 to 1816 it was a fief of the Orsini family: the pope Benedict XIII (Pietro Francesco Orsini-Gravina) was born here in 1649.