Altamura's guide
Altamura's guide
Altamura's guide
Altamura's city guide
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Altamura  

The city has very ancient origins as evidenced by the significant paleontological discoveries of Man of Altamura (the oldest European Homo Neanderthal, dated between 170 and 150 thousand years ago) and dinosaur footprints.
The landscape is characterized by the presence of the so-called "murge" and was modeled by the karst, as evidenced by one of the largest sinkholes in Europe, the Pulo, with its 90 m deep and its 550 m in diameter. Much of the area falls within the scope and protection of the Alta Murgia Park.
Since the sixth century BC the town was surrounded by an imposing defensive walls made of three rings, of which today there are only two: the outer, locally called the "megalithic walls", and the inner enclosing the acropolis, on which then other fortifications were built in medieval times and that still enclose the old city, characterized by a peculiar urban organization based on cloisters (claustri).
In the historic center stands the imposing majestic Assumption Cathedral in Apulian Romanesque style. It is worth mentioning also the church of St. Nicholas of the Greeks with its baptismal font of the twelfth century, probably coming from Cappadocia. The city also has four museums: the National Archaeological Museum, the Ethnographic Museum of Rural Life, the A.B.M.C. (Archive, Library, Museum) and the Museo Tipografico Portoghese.
Events and celebrations not to be missed are the Federicus (April / May), the Feast of St. Irene and the Assumption (May 5) and the Feast of Our Lady of Buoncammino (first Sunday after August).
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