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12-May-2025 TOMASZ DZIUBINSKI

The Roman two-level bridge

Gravina in Puglia, Italy

The Roman two-level bridge that extends over the canyon and the Roman town of Silvium, although it is quite ruined it offers great views of Gravina.

Gravina in Puglia is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. The "city of the rock-cut churches". The word gravina comes from the Latin grava, with the meaning of rock, shaft and erosion of bank river. Alternatively, when the emperor Frederick II went to Gravina, because of the large extension of the lands and for the presence of wheat, he decided to give to it the motto Grana dat et vina., that is to say It offers wheat and wine. Some of Italy's best semolina comes from here. 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. An important find of a skeleton belonging to an Asiatic man in the Vagnari necropolis testifies the existence of relations between the town of Gravina and the Far East already in 200 BCE. 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.

The most important monuments of Gravina are: Cathedral (11th-12th centuries) – built by the Normans in Romanesque style. Destroyed by fires and earthquakes in the mid-15th century, it houses a splendid reliquary of an arm of the English Thomas Becket; The remains of Frederick II's castle, site on a hill nearby the town, designed in 1231; San Francesco – late 15th-early 16th-century church; Madonna delle Grazie – Baroque-style church; San Sebastiano – Renaissance-style church; San Michele delle Grotte – 10th-century church carved out from the tuff rocks (one of the Chiese rupestri). It has also a well preserved Roman bridge, dating to at least 1686. Following the earthquake of 1722, the bridge was restored and transformed into an aqueduct by the Orsini family of Rome, who then moved to Gravina around the middle of the 18th century.


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Alexander Kazakov29-Sep-2025 14:23
Outstanding! V
FrankB22-Sep-2025 09:57
Roman architecture boggles the mind! My folks are from Bari. Thanks for this wonderful shot of the place. V
carol j. phipps15-Sep-2025 14:43
Incredible composition. V
Jeff Real31-Aug-2025 14:05
This is magnificent photography!
I am in awe!
V
joseantonio15-Aug-2025 16:07
what an amazing perspective.V.
marie-jose wolff15-Aug-2025 11:14
a stormy and threatening sky above this imposing old bridge, fine B&W capture! V
Nestor Derkach14-Aug-2025 09:12
Excellent monochrome presentation tack sharp very dramatic.
Impressive Roman two level bridge I can just picture this being constructed .
They did a nice job.
Nice choice of image size.
Vote
Marc Demoulin14-Aug-2025 08:18
Beautiful dramatic sky wow! V
Dave Petersen Photography12-Aug-2025 12:02
So dramatic and beautiful as a black and white capture. Beautifully composed especially with the strong leading lines and foreboding sky. VV++
Marcia Rules11-Aug-2025 23:02
A visual journey that I find spectacular! BVV~
Jola Dziubinska10-Aug-2025 19:52
Very dramatic effect in this B&W image, excellent panoramic view. V.
Gerard KOEHL10-Aug-2025 17:03
Magnifique vue et compositioN. V
Helen Betts10-Aug-2025 15:04
Excellent composition of the bridge and town, accompanied by a very dramatic sky. V.