Centro storico di Ruvo di Puglia

Ruvo di Puglia’s historic centre brings together the Romanesque co-cathedral, the Jatta archaeological museum and a network of historic streets and palaces. Beneath the modern town lie remains of earlier Peucetian and Roman settlement, while the town’s museums preserve objects found in the surrounding area.

Why it matters

Ruvo’s present centre grew over an older settlement. The town’s history includes Peucetian communities, the Roman municipium of Rubi and its later medieval development. Archaeological traces beneath the co-cathedral connect the historic centre to these earlier periods. The cathedral, built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, remains its principal religious landmark.

What to notice

The co-cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta anchors the old centre with its Romanesque-Puglian and Gothic-Swabian forms. Nearby, Palazzo Caputi houses the Museo del Libro and Casa della Cultura. The National Archaeological Museum Jatta preserves more than two thousand archaeological finds, most recovered in the territory of Ruvo, including an important collection of Greek and locally produced vases. These buildings and collections give the centre a close relationship between civic life, architecture and archaeology.

Context and history

Ruvo developed as a Roman municipium after entering Rome’s sphere of influence, and the Via Traiana crossed its territory. In the Middle Ages, the town became a bishopric and the co-cathedral was built above earlier structures. In the nineteenth century, Giovanni and Giulio Jatta assembled archaeological finds from the area; the museum collection was arranged in the family palace built for that purpose. The historic centre thus preserves both the town’s long settlement history and the later civic work of collecting and interpreting its archaeology.