Every design for Barletta

How many towns can say they were saved by a giant who pretended to cry? In Barletta the story goes that Eraclio, the great bronze Colossus, stood on the shore as Saracen ships approached and wept that he was the smallest person in town; the raiders, convinced that Barletta was a city of giants, turned round and sailed off. People here still call the statue by that name, as if he were a neighbour.

What sets Barletta apart is how much history fits inside one coastal town. The municipality takes in Cannae, where Hannibal won his famous battle, and the Cantina della Sfida recalls the Disfida di Barletta, when thirteen Italian knights under Ettore Fieramosca beat as many French ones in a joust that Massimo d'Azeglio later turned into a novel. Add the Castello di Barletta, the Pinacoteca De Nittis and the Porta Marina, with the Adriatic and the mouth of the Ofanto close by, and the town's whole story is within reach.

And at the centre stands Eraclio himself, a towering figure in bronze, the largest statue to survive from the late Roman Empire, still keeping watch for ships.