The Patron
San Nicola Pellegrino
Nicola Pellegrino is Trani's patron, celebrated on 2 June. He is distinguished from San Nicola of Bari, making devotion to Nicola Pellegrino a more precise Tranese marker.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Barletta-Andria-Trani,
Puglia
The archive town for an entire historic province.
Trani stands on the Adriatic with one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Italy built directly on the harbour rock, and a Swabian castle beside it.
For a family researcher it is the single most important town in this part of Puglia — not for its own descendants alone, but because the civil records of the whole ancient province of Terra di Bari, 1809 to 1861, are held here.
The Archive
Terra di Bari
Trani holds the civil-status records for the entire ancient Terra di Bari from 1809–1861. Researchers from many modern Bari and BAT comuni therefore need Trani even when their family never lived here.
The Landmark
Cattedrale di Trani
The Cattedrale di Trani is the city's defining harbour landmark. For descendants, its parish role matters locally, while Trani's wider archival significance comes from provincial institutions that remained here after the capital moved.
Did you know?
A WHOLE PROVINCE'S RECORDS ARE HERE
Terra di Bari civil status stayed in Trani
Trani holds civil status for 1809–1861 across the entire historic Terra di Bari, even after Bari replaced it as provincial capital. Military records for Trani and several neighbouring comuni are instead held at Barletta, splitting the research by record type.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
Italian is standard. Local speech may include Apulian varieties, with Salentino varieties further south.
Terra di Bari lives here
Trani rose as a port in the Norman period and became one of the most important on the Adriatic — trading with Venice, Ragusa and the Levant, and issuing the Ordinamenta et consuetudo maris of 1063, among the oldest surviving maritime codes in the western Mediterranean.
Its cathedral , dedicated to San Nicola Pellegrino and begun in 1099, stands on the harbour rock in pale local stone — the finest of the Puglian Romanesque churches. The castle beside it was built by Frederick II.
The city held a significant Jewish community in the Middle Ages, with a giudecca whose synagogues survive as churches — Scolanova among them, since returned to Jewish use.
Under the Kingdom, Trani was the capital of the Terra di Bari and the seat of its courts. In 1806 the provincial capital passed to Bari , but the judicial and archival institutions remained here — which is why the archive is in Trani and not in the larger city.
The archive's own history reflects that: it began in 1853 as a supplementary archive of the Archivio provinciale di Bari, became a Section of the Archivio di Stato di Bari in 1965 , and is now a seat of the Archivio di Stato di Barletta-Andria-Trani .
Postcards from Trani
Wear Trani
WANT TO SEE TRANI REPRESENTED?
Castellesi hasn't made anything for this place yet. Requests are how we decide which comuni come next — every one is read, and the places people ask for are the places that get made.
REQUEST TRANI →Where this
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PROVINCIA DI BARLETTA-ANDRIA-TRANI
Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Barletta-Andria-Trani and its remarkable comuni.
EXPLORE BARLETTA-ANDRIA-TRANI →REGIONE PUGLIA
From the mountains to the sea, Puglia is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE PUGLIA →From the passenger index
At least 713 people who gave Trani 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 →Ready to visit
A cathedral at the water's edge
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Bari or Brindisi Airport, depending on the destination.
Trani is the most attractive town on this coast — a working harbour ringed by cafes, with the cathedral standing alone on its rock at the water's edge, best seen in late light.
For a descendant it is also the archive town : if your family came from anywhere in the old Terra di Bari, the pre-1861 records are here.
The old town around the port is compact, with the Giudecca, the castle and the medieval churches all within a short walk. Andria are fifteen minutes away, Castel del Monte half an hour inland, and Bari about forty minutes south.
What to see
La Cattedrale di San Nicola Pellegrino — on the rock above the sea.
Il Castello Svevo — Frederick II's fortress beside the harbour.
The Giudecca and Scolanova — the medieval Jewish quarter and its synagogue.
The harbour — the working port at the centre of the town.
The archive — holding the Terra di Bari civil status, 1809–1861.
Castel del Monte — Frederick's octagonal castle, half an hour inland.
Your family's parish — the record-keeping institution before 1809.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
Trani holds two separate civil-status fonds: the whole ancient province before unification, and the Trani tribunal district afterwards.
The Trani section on Antenati
Civil status 1901–1938 deposited by the Tribunale di Trani for the eleven comuni of its district.
antenati.cultura.gov.itWhat the Trani seat holds
The Ministry's description: the civil status of the ancient province of Terra di Bari for 1809–1861, the Sacra Regia Udienza from 1586, and the notarial acts of the eleven-comune district from 1498.
cultura.gov.itBrowse the Bari civil registers on Antenati
The parent archive, covering the comuni of Bari province.
antenati.cultura.gov.itRelated places
Keep exploring
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.
Your Roots. Their Story. Your Place.
Trani is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →