Ahoy, maties! We’re still in Venice, but not for long. We’re leaving Venice on the gigantic cruise ship, Costa Mediterranea. Moving slowly down the Giudecca Canal, we’ve just passed the Doge’s palace. Next stop: Bari, Italy.
We’ll head southeast into the Adriatic Sea. We’ll follow the Italian coastline down to the Italian port town of Bari. (Pronounced “bah-ree”). For most of the way there, the western coast of Croatia will be on our port side.
Due to its natural harbor, Bari has been a busy port town for many a year. These days, it’s a getaway destination for Northern Europeans. They like to vacation in Bari because of its warm sunny days and nice beaches.
Given its strategic location on the southeastern Italian coast, you can guess that Bari has been ruled by numerous groups over the years. Romans, Lombards, Normans, Byzantines – just about everyone who passed through the area. A good natural harbor is a valuable thing, eh?
Frederick II
One of Bari’s most famous supporters was Frederick II, a Holy Roman Emperor in the 12th Century. The extent of his power was vast, but I don’t remember ever hearing about him in 8th grade History. (Those weren’t exactly my best “payin’ attention” years, but I bet he’s not high on many other Westerners’ list of notables, either).
Still, it’s surprising that he isn’t more well-known – at least to Westerners. He was king of just about everything at one time or another, including King of Germany, King of Italy, and King of Sicily. He was even King of Jerusalem for a while, by virtue of his participation in one of the Crusades. (Definitely not the 4th Crusade, though, as you may recall).
Let’s not say whether he was a good man or bad man, but it’s clear that he was his own man. Even though he was Holy Roman Emperor, he didn’t have much to do with the Church. In fact, he enraged a few popes to the extent that more than one excommunicated him. He was excommunicated four times! That might be a record.
Frederick was a falconer. He must have had some serious falconing skills. In fact, he wrote a “how-to” book on falconing. It’s said to be very detailed, with instructions on exactly how to get your falcon to do whatever they had falcons do in those days. “Go get that mouse over there!” I don’t know… I haven’t done a lot of falconing.
Frederick was a student of the sciences, such as they were in the 12th century. He commissioned experiments to learn about what makes people tick. He was definitely ahead of his time. Ahead of his time, but perhaps not far enough ahead of his time.
It was still the Dark Ages. People hadn’t yet got the idea to do experiments on rats. So in Frederick’s experiments, they used people. But we’re not going to go there.
The Swabian Castle
There’s an attraction in Bari that’s linked to Frederick II. It’s the Swabian Castle. That’s right, the Swabian Castle. I know what you’re thinking… “What the heck are a bunch of Swabs doing with a castle? They should be on the deck of a ship somewhere, swabbing away.”
This is indicative of a common Western cultural affliction: too much Popeye, and not enough history. It turns out that there’s more than one kind of Swab out there.
The other kind of swabs are the REAL Swabs that came from Swabia. Swabia was a territory located where southern Germany is now. They’re more properly referred to as “Swabians”, but since Swabia got swallowed up by Bavaria and its neighbors, there might not be many folks around anymore who’d know the difference.
Frederick II had Swabian blood in him. He did a major overhaul of the castle in Bari, and made it his own. Now it’s known as the Swabian castle.
A few hundred years after Frederick II, in the Middle Ages, Bari became a major center for the slave trade. No, not the slave trade you’re probably thinking of. The slave trade whereby Southern Europeans traveled north to capture Northern or Central Europeans, particularly Slavs.
They’d capture northerners and take them down to Bari, where they’d sell ‘em as slaves to Muslim states on the Eastern end of the Mediterranean. It was a thriving business back in the day.
Bari is also known for an infamous event that happened there during World War II. It was hush-hush for years, but the cat’s out of the bag now.
But avast ye swabs! We’re pulling into Bari now. Let’s save that sad tale for later.
To be continued…
