UniBA Cultural Heritage

UniBA, an Italian Cultural Heritage

Over the course of its first hundred years, the University of Bari has developed a rich and diverse cultural heritage, consisting of historic buildings, art collections, university museums, and sites of significant historical and architectural value.

The first monumental post-unification building in the city of Bari is the Palazzo Ateneo, designed by the Neapolitan architect Giovanni Castelli. The building, structured around five courtyards and constructed starting from the second half of the 19th century, occupies an entire city block and was conceived from the outset as a university headquarters.
Inside, there are prestigious spaces, including the Aula Magna, decorated with paintings by the Prayer brothers and created on the occasion of the founding of the University in 1924–25. The frescoed halls on the first floor also housed the Provincial Archaeological Museum, now used for the Rectorate and exhibition spaces.

In the near future, the building—recently enhanced by the addition of the University and Community Library in the elegant spaces once occupied by the Biblioteca Nazionale Sagarriga Visconti—will also see the reopening of its entrances facing Piazza Cesare Battisti, along with the creation of museum spaces and additional services.

Next to Palazzo Ateneo, around the gardens of Piazza Cesare Battisti, lies the humanities campus, featuring several important buildings:

  • the former Palazzo delle Poste from the 1930s, now a multifunctional student facility;
  • Palazzo Del Prete, home to the Departments of Law and Political Science, featuring an elegant artistic gate by Giuseppe Capogrossi;
  • the former ENEL building, one of the most innovative architectural works of the mid-20th century, designed by architects Vittorio Chiaia and Massimo Napolitano, now home to the Department of FORPSICOM;
  • the Palazzo di Lingue, formerly the FIAT headquarters in Bari, an interesting example of an early 20th-century commercial building converted into a university facility, now hosting part of the Department of Humanities Research and Innovation.

In the old town, the University is present with the historic complex of Santa Teresa dei Maschi, dating back to the Middle Ages and later renovated in the 1970s. Today, it houses part of the Department of Humanities Research and Innovation and serves as a university cultural centre, with archaeology laboratories and a rich library dedicated to archaeology and Christian studies.

Villa Larocca is also of great value. Built in 1878 and surrounded by a historic garden, it hosts scientific and cultural institutions, including the Accademia Pugliese delle Scienze and the University Museum System.

The University of Bari’s campus in Taranto is also characterised by historic buildings, such as the convent complex of San Francesco d’Assisi and Palazzo d’Aquino.

In addition to its historic buildings, UniBA’s cultural heritage includes an important contemporary art collection, largely developed thanks to the initiative of Rector Ernesto Quagliariello. The collection includes paintings and sculptures by numerous Italian artists, including Afro, Filippo Alto, Pietro Annigoni, Giuseppe Ar, Franco Batacchi, Domenico Cantatore, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Brun Cassinari, Manlio Chieppa, Mario Colonna, Pietro Consagra, Pino Conte, Michele Damiani, Roberto De Robertis, Fara di Cagno, Salvatore Fiume, Franco Gentilini, Frenando Grandi, Emilio Greco, Guido Gremigni, Giacomo Grosso, Virgilio Guidi, Antini Lanave, Carlo Levi, Marino Marini, Matteo Masiello, Umberto Mastroianni, Franco Melonascina, Giorgio Morandi, Giovanni Omiccioli, Cipriano Efisio Oppo, Enrico Paulucci, Assen Peikov, Mario Piergiovanni, Fausto Pirandello, Giò Pomodoro, Guido Prayer, Mario Prayer, Tony Prayer, Ernesto Quagliariello, Ferruccio Ritossa, Alberto Salietti, Mario Schifano, Luigi Schingo, Gino Severini, Raffaele Spizzico, Vito Stìfano, Orfeo Tamburi, Amerigo Tot, Fernando Troso, Adolf Vallazza, Giuseppe Van Westerhout, and many others.

In recent decades, UniBA has also established the University Museum System (SIMA), which includes numerous museums and scientific collections, such as: the historic Botanical Garden, the Museum of Zoology, the Museum of Earth Sciences, the Faunal Museum, the Museum of Entomology, the Museum of Psychology and Psychotechnics, the Museum of Computer Science, the Museum of Anatomy and Morphology of Domestic Animals, the Museum of Commodity Science, the Museum of the History of School and Educational Institutions, the Collection of Historical Physics Instruments, and the Collection of the Department of Chemistry.

The University of Bari aims to make this heritage increasingly known, protected, and enhanced, making it accessible not only to the academic community but also to citizens and visitors of Bari and the Apulia region.

To this end, planned initiatives include a new comprehensive survey of the entire cultural heritage, which will also be accessible through a Web-GIS system, guided tours and special openings, exhibitions, conferences, and various outreach activities.

The University also intends to promote the creation of a “university heritage community,” inspired by the principles of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro, 2005).

The goal is to encourage participation, inclusion, and sharing by fostering active involvement and placing people and human values at the centre of a broad, interdisciplinary vision of cultural heritage, considered as a resource for sustainable development and for improving quality of life.

Prof. Giuliano Volpe (Rector’s Delegate for Cultural Heritage)

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