Apulia

Region of Italy, in the southeast ‘heel’, comprising the provinces of Bari, Brindisi, Foggia, Lecce, and Taranto; area 19,362 sq km/7,476 sq mi; population (2001 est) 3,983,500. Apulia borders the Adriatic Sea in the east and the Strait of Otranto in the south; the capital is Bari, and the main industrial centre is Taranto.

Physical The north and the south of the region are plains; the Tavoliere (chessboard), the northern plain, is overlooked by the isolated mountain masses of Gargano. The centre has ranges of the Apennines. The main rivers of Apulia (the Ofanto, Cervaro, and Fortore) are seasonal and lie in the north. Water scarcity has long been a problem, and it has been necessary to carry drinking water by aqueduct across the Appenines from the Sele River in Campania.

Economy Agriculture is the most important sector, in terms both of employment and of production. As well as cereals, almonds, figs, tobacco, grapes, and olives, horticulture and sheep farming are also important, and Apulia has the fourth-highest fishing catch in Italy. Underground resources include several natural gas deposits (at Capitanata) and bauxite (at Trani and Poggiardo), and there is a fair production of electricity, almost exclusively by thermal generation. In the south of the region, the industrial sector is highly developed, with two vast industrial complexes, the Taranto steel works and a chemical plant at Brindisi, forming two points of the highly industrialized Bari-Brindisi-Taranto triangle. The service sector is weak but tourism is increasing in importance. The influx of tourists is linked to the numbers of beach resorts along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts.

History In ancient times Apulia, together with Calabria, formed the second Augustan regio (administrative district). Subsequently it belonged to the Byzantine Empire, the Lombards, the Byzantines again, the Normans, and finally the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There are universities at Bari (1924) and Lecce (1955).