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Emperor Frederick II wanted to deport the Muslim community of Sicily to Lucera, which had rebelled against him, and they went from being his adversaries to his most faithful allies. “Lucera Saracenorum", Lucera of the Saracens,” it was called, tall with minarets and mosques, and more beautiful, they say, than Cordoba under the caliphate. In 1239 there were apparently no more than a dozens Christian inhabitants in the city.
When Charles of Anjou brought an end to the kingdom, all the inhabitants of Lucera, men, women and children, bravely fought, giving their life, in defense of the emperor. Passing through the gates of the city, except for the ruined foundations of what was one of the imperial residences, you see the void, a vast, open space, an absence more than a presence. It is for this too that “Lugerah”, the Arab name for the town, is worth a visit.
In classical antiquity, Lucera was a splendid and famous city, and from that period there survives an amphitheater surrounded by tombs and houses that go back to the first century before Christ. The Cathedral, which is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, was built by the Angevins in the 14th century and, in Southern Italy, it is one of the best preserved works of architecture of the period.
The interior is laid out in the form of a cross. The high altar is constituted by a stone table of the era of Frederick II that came from Castel Fiorentino. That castle, whose few but suggestive remains are not far from the Masseria Canestrello, is famous because the emperor died there.
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