What is Andria known for?

Frederick II's octagonal Murge castle of the 1240s, UNESCO 1996, the image on the back of the Italian one-cent euro coin. Invented in Andria in the early twentieth century by the Bianchino family; the soft mozzarella shell filled with cream and stracciatella now travels worldwide. Coratina cultivar from the surrounding Murge, one of Italy's most-planted varieties, the backbone of Terra di Bari DOP.

When is the best time to visit Andria?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September through October are the Murge months: clear light, mild evenings, the Castel del Monte plateau walkable without sweat. July and August hit thirty-six in the city and the castle exposed at 540 meters is brutal between noon and four. October is the olive harvest. November through March is quiet and cool; the cathedral and Sant'Agostino interiors are warmer than the streets and the city operates on its own rhythm rather than the tourist circuit. The Festa di San Riccardo in mid-September is the patron's day and the busiest civic moment of the year.

Andria is a comune in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia region of Italy, about 71 kilometers from Bari.

How do I get to Andria?

From Bari, Andria is roughly 71 km by road.

Apulia · Barletta-Andria-Trani

Andria

Frederick II's favourite Apulian city, the birthplace of burrata, ruling the Murge plateau eighteen kilometers north of its most famous castle.

Known for

CASTEL DEL MONTE
Frederick II's octagonal Murge castle of the 1240s, UNESCO 1996, the image on the back of the Italian one-cent euro coin.
BURRATA
Invented in Andria in the early twentieth century by the Bianchino family; the soft mozzarella shell filled with cream and stracciatella now travels worldwide.
OLIVE OIL
Coratina cultivar from the surrounding Murge, one of Italy's most-planted varieties, the backbone of Terra di Bari DOP.
LENTICCHIA DI ALTAMURA
The commune also lies inside the Lenticchia di Altamura IGP production zone.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Why come

Andria sits on the Murge plateau, ten kilometers from the Adriatic, the third-largest city in Puglia after Bari and Taranto. It was made a fortified civitas in 1046 under Peter the Norman, with twelve towers, three gates and a citadel; Frederick II raised it again in the thirteenth century and built his most famous castle on a hilltop eighteen kilometers south of the city walls. The city and Castel del Monte read as two expressions of the same Frederician ambition, one a working civitas of towers and gates, the other a solitary geometric exercise on an open plateau with no town around it at all.

The other claim Andria makes is burrata, invented around the early twentieth century by the Bianchino family as a way to use leftover mozzarella scraps. A fortified city, an unfinished castle, and a cheese born from kitchen thrift: the Murge produced a walled seat of power and, separately, an object meant to be looked at rather than defended, and a food born of nothing more than not wanting to waste the scraps.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Andria’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Castel del Monte
An octagonal prism with eight octagonal towers, standing alone on a Murge hilltop and visible for fifty kilometers in any direction. Never finished, never used for war.
Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Romanesque cathedral founded in the twelfth century, rebuilt over the centuries, holds the crypt and the relics of San Riccardo, the city's patron.
Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Gothic-Romanesque church built by the Teutonic Knights in the late thirteenth century, with a sculpted portal that is one of the finest in Puglia.
Porta Sant'Andrea
Surviving medieval gate of the Frederician walls, also called Porta della Castellana, still framing the eastern entrance to the centro storico.
Parco Nazionale dell'Alta Murgia
National park on the Murge plateau around the castle, dolines and pseudosteppe, with the largest population of lesser kestrels in Europe.

The slow-trip planner

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Living here

Population 97,146
A local hubi
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Bari / Brindisi, 59 min drive
Regional capital Bari, 1 h 3 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 151 m
Population: 97,146
Surface area: 402.89 km²

On the map

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These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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