Bari bits and bobs

One of our outings during our brief stay in delightful Bari was to the local fortress, the Castello Normanno-Svevo, which was originally built by the Normans in the 12th century and over the subsequent 900 years was destroyed, rebuilt, and repurposed by a series of conquerors and rulers. It's an impressive pile, even though there's not much left inside.

Most of it has been turned into exhibition space.We saw a big multimedia show about the tenor Tito Schipa, whom we hadn't heard of before. He was born in Lecce and was active in the U.S. in the 1930s and '40s. He had a lovely voice. The exhibition indicated that this aria from Massenet's Werther was Schipa's signature performance. He certainly gives it plenty of oomph.

The best part of the exhibition was the discussion of his very active romantic life. His first love, his childhood sweetheart, was so disheartened by his infidelities that she joined a convent and adopted ot only a nun's habit but very severe spectacles. It struck me as amusing that she devoted the rest of her life to the fight against rabies.

Even better was the castle's display of plaster casts of sculptures from different churches in the area. Usually these things are too high up or too far behind velvet ropes to be seen clearly; this was a chance to look at them close up. Here are a couple of nice griffins devouring, respectively, a snake and a fish.

This 13th-century Madonna from Barletta was my favorite. Usually the Virgo Lactans looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, but whoever carved this version obviously knew what it's like when the baby gets his first teeth. Ouch!

The other notable tourist site in Bari is the cathedral devoted to San Nicola, whom we know as Santa Claus.

The cathedral's front pillars rest on two bulls, which seems symbolically appropriate when you learn more about the San Nicola racket.

Saint Nicholas is much revered by Russians as well as Italians, so all the cathedral's signs having to do with him are in Cyrillic as well as Italian and English. He looks unpleasantly surprised to find himself such a celebrity.

The cathedral houses the saint's bones, or at least some portion of them; another church in Venice also claims to have his remains. The church contends that a sweet-smelling liquid exudes from the saint's bones. (One Catholic site dubbed him the "Secrete Santa.") This exudate is called "manna" and it purportedly brings good fortune and heals various ailments. Every year on May 9 the Bari cathedral harvests the manna while taking the saint's image on a procession around town. And because this is the Catholic church we're talking about, they sell this precious substance at the cathedral gift shop. 

A Catholic web site I turned to for information says that the saint produces only about 50 milliliters of manna per year, but I saw a lot of bottles of the stuff for sale in the store. The little ones on the upper left are only 3 euros each; the decorated bottles go for as much as 70. Presumably the bottles are filled with holy water or blessed oil, with just a drop of the precious manna mixed in. But  of course that doesn't mean the stuff won't work.