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Gravina in Puglia

Gravina in Puglia
Comune
Comune di Gravina in Puglia
Panorama of Gravina in Puglia
Panorama of Gravina in Puglia
Coat of arms of Gravina in Puglia
Coat of arms
Gravina in Puglia is located in Italy
Gravina in Puglia
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.


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