— Castellesi
Monopoli stands on the Adriatic south of Bari, a walled town around a harbour of small fishing boats, with a large agricultural territory running inland toward the Valle d'Itria.
That territory matters for research: the comune has an unusually large number of contrade — rural districts with their own names and their own chapels — and a family record here may name one of them rather than the town.
Italian is standard. Local speech may include Apulian varieties, with Salentino varieties further south.
Monopoli — the name is Greek, monos polis , the single city — grew as a port on the Adriatic under Byzantium and the Normans, and its walls and Charles V castle face the sea because that is where danger came from.
The town had a period under Venetian rule around the turn of the sixteenth century, and the Venetian and Spanish centuries left it the fortifications and the palazzi of the old town.
Its wealth came from olive oil , shipped from this coast in quantity, and from the produce of its large inland territory. That territory is the distinctive thing: the comune covers a wide stretch of countryside dotted with masserie and contrade , many with their own chapels, and for centuries a substantial part of the population lived out there rather than within the walls.
Monopoli has been a diocesan seat since the early Middle Ages, and remains one — today Conversano-Monopoli , a union of two older sees.
The town has grown as a destination in recent decades, and the old harbour is now as much a place to sit as to work.
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Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Bari and its remarkable comuni.
EXPLORE BARI →From the mountains to the sea, Puglia is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE PUGLIA →From the passenger index
At least 1,067 people who gave Monopoli as their home are recorded by name among Italian arrivals in the United States — each with the ship they sailed on and the day they landed.
A floor, not a total. The index covers arrivals through 1912, holds nothing between May 1907 and December 1911, and many passengers were written down with no home town at all. Where a name is there, it is there with its record.
Have Orso look for your family →The nearest major airport is Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport.
Monopoli's old town is among the most attractive on this coast — white lanes, the harbour of small blue boats, the cathedral and the castle on the walls. In summer it is busy.
For a descendant the countryside matters as much as the town. The contrade and masserie inland are where a large share of Monopolitani lived and worked, and driving out to one is a different experience from walking the harbour.
The Valle d'Itria — Alberobello, Locorotondo, Martina Franca — is half an hour inland, and Bari is forty minutes north.
The old town and the walls — the harbour, the Castello di Carlo V and the lanes behind.
La Cattedrale della Madonna della Madia — and the story of the icon's arrival.
The porto antico — the small boats, best in the early evening.
The contrade and masserie — the countryside inland, and where many families lived.
The Valle d'Itria — the trulli country half an hour away.
Your family's parish or contrada chapel — the record-keeping institution before 1809.
The journey does not end at the boundary of one comune. The province, the region and the neighbouring towns often hold the rest of the picture.
Monopoli is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →