Monopoli (Monòpolis in Greek) is a town in Italy, in the province of Bari, region of Apulia. The town is roughly 156 square km in area and lies about 40 km southeast from Bari. It has about 50,000 inhabitants.
The area was first settled as a Greek establishment as the city of Gnatia, Monopoli being a smaller outer village known as Dyria, of Peucetian origins.
After the destruction of Gnatia by the Ostrogoth king Totila in 545, its inhabitants fle...
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Monopoli (Monòpolis in Greek) is a town in Italy, in the province of Bari, region of Apulia. The town is roughly 156 square km in area and lies about 40 km southeast from Bari. It has about 50,000 inhabitants.
The area was first settled as a Greek establishment as the city of Gnatia, Monopoli being a smaller outer village known as Dyria, of Peucetian origins.
After the destruction of Gnatia by the Ostrogoth king Totila in 545, its inhabitants fled to Monopoli, from which it derives its name as "only city". In the following centuries the area would be controlled by the Byzantines, Normans and Hohenstaufen, and was a starting point for naval Crusades expeditions, living in that period the peak of its splendour. Later it was a fief under Angevine and Aragonese feudal lords.
In 1484 the city came under Venetian control and saw an economic upswing as a seaport on the Adriatic Sea as a base between Bari and Brindisi, as well as through trading its own agricultural goods. It was frequenelty...
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