| Porta Bari | |
| Type: | Gate |
| Nearest City: | Altamura |
| Built: | Middle Ages |
| Original Use: | One of the main gates of the City Walls of Altamura (starting from the Middle Ages) |
| Rebuilt: | 16th-17th centuries |
| Current Use: | One of the gates of Altamura's historic centre |
Porta Bari (pronounced as /it/), previously called Porta de Bari,[1] was one of the main gates of the city of Altamura, before the city walls of the city were torn down over the 19th century. Similarly to most European cities (such as Vienna), the city walls were torn down, because the new technology and military techniques employed starting from the 19th century made them useless for defense purposes.
The gate, as it appears today, was built between the 16th and 17th centuries. The previous gate was quite different from today. Before it was rebuilt, on top of the gate there used to be a small church, the chiesetta di SS. Annunziata. The first evidence of the existence of this small church dates back to the 1490, and it was super portam de Bari (Latin, i.e. "on top of Porta Bari"); documents about visits to the church by archdeacons testify that the church had some issues, since it could be reached only through an uncomfortable ladder and it was located above one of the main gates of the city.[2]
On top of the gate is a stone inscription, attributed to Saint Alphonsus Liguori[3]