FOGGIA  , a

town and episcopal see (since 1855) of Apulia, Italy, the capital of the province of Foggia, situated 243 ft. above sea-level, in the centre of the great Apulian plain, 201 M. by rail S.E. of Ancona and 123 M . N.E. by E. of Naples . Pop . (1901) town, 49,031; commune, 53,134 . The name is probably derived from the pits or cellars (foveae) in which the inhabitants store their grain . The town is the medieval successor of the ancient Arpi, 3 M. to the N.; the Normans, after conquering the district from the Eastern empire, gave it its first importance . The date of the erection of the cathedral is probably about 1179; it retains some traces of Norman architecture, and the facade has a fine figured cornice by Bartolommeo da Foggia; the crypt has capitals of the 11th (?) century . The whole church was, however, much altered after the earthquake of 1731 . A gateway of the palace of the emperor Frederick II . (1223, by Bartolommeo da Foggia) is also preserved . Here died his third wife, Isabella, daughter of King John of England . Charles of Anjou died here in 1284 .

After his son's

death, it was a prey to internal dissensions and finally came under Alphonso I. of Aragon, who converted the pastures of the Apulian plain into a royal domain in 1445, and made Foggia the place at which the tax on the sheep was to be paid and the wool to be sold . The other buildings of the town are modern . Foggia is a commercial centre of some importance for the produce of the surrounding country, and is also a considerable railway centre, being situated on the main line from Bologna to Brindisi, at the point where this is joined by the line from Benevento and Caserta . There are also branches to Rocchetta S . Antonio (and thence to either Avellino, Potenza, or Gioia del Colle), to Manfredonia, and to Lucera .