Gravina in Puglia

Gravina in Puglia
Comune
Comune di Gravina in Puglia
Panorama of Gravina in Puglia
Coat of arms
Gravina in Puglia Location of Gravina in Puglia in Italy
Coordinates: 40°49′N 16°25′E / 40.817°N 16.417°E / 40.817; 16.417Coordinates: 40°49′N 16°25′E / 40.817°N 16.417°E / 40.817; 16.417
Country	Italy
Region	Apulia
Province / Metropolitan city	Bari
Frazioni	Murgetta, Dolcecanto, Pantanella
Government
• Mayor	Alesio Valente (PD)
Area
• Total	384.73 km2 (148.55 sq mi)
Elevation	367 m (1,204 ft)
Population (January 2013)
• Total	43,790
• Density	110/km2 (290/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	gravinesi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	70024
Dialing code	080
Patron saint	Michael the Archangel, St. Philip Neri
Saint day	September 29
Website	Official website

Gravina in Puglia (Latin: Silvium; Greek: Σιλούϊον) is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy.

The word gravina comes from the Latin grava or from the messapic graba, with the meaning of rock, shaft and erosion of bank river. Other words that share the same root are grava, gravaglione and gravinelle. Instead, when the emperor Frederick II went to Gravina, because of the large extension of the lands and for the presence of wheat, he decided to give to it the motto Grana dat et vina., that is to say It offers wheat and wine.

The town was founded by the Greeks during the colonization of Greater Greece, as a polis with the right of a mint of his own. Diodorus notes it as an Apulian town, which was wrested from the Samnites by the Romans during the 3rd Samnite War (305 or 306 BCE). It was a town in the interior of Apulia. It is noticed by Strabo as the frontier town of the Peucetii, and its name is noticed by Pliny among the municipal towns of Apulia. The Via Appia, which linked Rome to Brindisi, passed through Gravina. The Itineraries place it 20 miles (32 km) from Venusia, on the branch of the Appian Way which led direct to Tarentum.