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We would like to present to all of you some of the most beautiful touristic attractions of our little town, ancient yes, but full of story.

In particular we will let you know the origins and the main features that concern:

Ancient city (Cimone's arch, Nardulli's arch)

Church of Santa Maria Maggiore

The castle

Monte Sannace's archaelogical site

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The inhabited area of ​​Gioia del Colle, dating back to the 9th century, preserves many testimonies of its past. In particular, the urban structure of the historic center has maintained its original conformation, although the buildings themselves have undergone several transformations and renovations.
Some, however, have gone through the centuries without undergoing any changes; among these, a peculiar case of the Gioia town, the arches that served as the entrance to the "courts", an open space that enclosed the access to several houses owned by a single gentleman.
A wooden or metal door, present in the past, indicates its defensive function which was added to that provided by the city walls.

The Cimone arch, located at the intersection between Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Via Principe Amedeo, was the access to a courtyard which gave access to a house dating back to the Norman period.
The arch, which represents the terminal part of the homonymous alley, is about 10 meters long and has an ogival shape, lowered compared to its width.
Inside the courtyard there are also two overlapping arches that act as buttresses between two houses separated by an alley. Testimonies of the antiquity of the building are the various friezes and architectural elements, including a heraldic coat of arms with three roses placed on the keystone of the arch (belonging to the D'Andrano family), and the external staircase leading to the house on the upper floor.

The Nardulli arch probably dates back to the 15th century and probably takes its name from the family who lived in that place at the time of its construction.
The arch is characterized by a radial ashlar structure, similar to the entrance door to the castle, suggesting a defensive function for the rooms inside the courtyard, an indication confirmed by the presence of a lookout tower in the upper part of the arch.
The arch is surmounted by a copy of an eighteenth-century panel, now lost. In the inner part of the arch there is a significantly pronounced wall arch in carparo tuff, supported on one side by a cat. Under the arch there is an aedicule that contains a wooden icon depicting sacred images.

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The primitive church, dating back to the end of the 11th century. and dedicated to St. Peter, it was built by the Norman count Riccardo Siniscalco, the first feudal lord of Gioia. Destroyed in 1764 by a violent fire, it was rebuilt in late Baroque style by the Salento architect Pasquale Margoleo. The facade, completed in 1893 and recently restored under the direction of the architect Vito Angelillo, is divided into two orders and is crowned by a balcony  and a cornucopia pediment.
In the niche on the right there is the Madonna Enthroned with Child, attributed to Stefano da Putignano, while on the sides of the entrance door you can admire two rampant lions, which were saved from the fire of 1764 together with an ancient sarcophagus later used as a sink and a 15th century Ecce Homo. sculpted by Giovanni Roccha.
Inside the church there are valuable works by Apulian artists of the eighteenth century, such as the Nativity of the Virgin by Vito Calò, the Madonna del Carmelo and the Crucifixion by Paolo Lanari.
Also noteworthy is the sculptural group of the Madonna and Child who crowns St. Catherine, attributed to Stefano da Putignano. There are also paintings by the Venetian artist Prayer and the painter Giuliano Giotti

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Gioia del Colle's castle Initially it consisted of a fortified enclosure in stone ashlars and was a refuge castle, that is, a place where the local population found shelter against the raids of enemy populations. This first nucleus was enlarged in the 12th century by the Norman Riccardo Siniscalco, who transformed it into a noble residence. The definitive arrangement of the castle is due to

Frederick II of Swabia around 1230, an era in which it has a quadrangular courtyard, halls and rooms that overlook it, and is delimited by four corner towers.

Legend has it that Manfredi was born in the castle of Gioia, from Frederick II and Bianca Lancia, a queen whom the sovereign had killed because she was guilty of treason.

The castle presents a variety of artistic motifs ranging from Arab influence,  probably the result of the Crusader experience of Frederick II, to the use of local limestone, ashlar, local carparo tuff.
All this creates an appreciable and pleasant contrast and a unique liveliness as a whole.

The courtyard leads to the rooms on the ground floor, once used as warehouses, stables and the residence of the servants and today used as the seat of the National Archaeological Museum, in which both finds from excavation campaigns of the acropolis and the town of Monte are exhibited. Sannace, one of the most important centers of Peucezia, located 5 Km from Gioia.

An entrance on the south side of the courtyard leads to the oven room, so called due to the presence of a large oven, on the structure of which rests one of the surviving towers, that of the Empress. Under the oven there is a small basement, once used as a prison.
Two breast-shaped protuberances are carved on the east wall of the prison. Legend has it that the breasts recall the martyrdom of Bianca Lancia, who, due to jealousy and the offense caused by Frederick II, immediately after giving birth to her son Manfredi, cut them off and ordered her servants to hand them over to the king husband, together with the newborn baby.

At the end of the courtyard staircase you enter the throne room, so called because at the bottom of the south wall there is a stone throne, a reconstruction of Pantaleo. The arch placed towards the terminal part of the room probably had the task of creating a division between the "reserved" area, that of the throne, from the environment intended for audiences, to the subjects, as is also demonstrated by the presence of seats in stone present in the latter environment.

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The archaeological park of Monte Sannace is located in the municipal area of ​​Gioia del Colle, on the top of a hill known as Monte Sannace, about 5 km from the city. The archaeological site has revealed the remains of an inhabited area of ​​the ancient Peuceti dating back to the 10th century BC, whose original toponym is unknown (we think of ancient Thuriae, today's Turi, mentioned by the Roman historian Tito Livio).

Many of the finds are exhibited in the national archaeological museum of Gioia del Colle, located inside the Norman-Swabian castle of the same town.

Like most of the centers of ancient Peucezia, the inhabited area of ​​Monte Sannace is located where the needs of the population are met; these basically consist of climate and exposure, the possibilities of natural defense, the availability of arable land and the ease of connection with other residential centers.

For the Peucetians, therefore, the sea has little attraction, it is rather functional to the needs of the most important centers of the interior. The archaeological importance of the locality was known since the eighteenth century thanks to some documents and fortuitous finds, mostly of the clandestine type by the farmers of the area.

The first regular campaign of archaeological excavations dates back only to 1929, on the initiative of the Provincial Authority for the Protection of Monuments in the Land of Bari and directed by Michele Gervasio, then director of the Bari Museum. The excavation brings to light some burials and a section of the city walls.