Tourist information - Brindisi
Brindisi, an essential seat of Roman Catholicism and also called by the Romans Brundusium or Brundisium, by the Greeks Brentesion is a city of at the province of Lecce, in Apulia, at a rocky peninsula which stretches into the Adriatic.
Around ancient times it was very leading as being a seaport, being accessible in all winds. In 245 B.C. the Romans captured Brindisi without striking a blow and also developed a Roman colony there. This city was one terminal of the Via Appia. In the civil wars in between Caesar and also Pompey, Brindisi was the base of naval operations. Brindisi was the birthplace of the poet Pacuvius; here also Virgil died in 19 B.C., on his return from Greece.
During the invasions of the barbarians it was taken and also destroyed a number of times, but was always renewed within a short period of time, so that as late as the twelfth century it had a population of 60,000, which has since dwindled to around 20,000. The harbor eventually filled up, which hindered navigation. The Italian Government made great attempts to remedy this, but on account of an error of judgment the beneficial results anticipated were not permanent.
According to a local legend, the first Bishop of Brindisi was St. Leucius, about 165, who later undergo martyrdom. However, taking into consideration the geographical position of this city, the beginnings of Christianity in Brindisi must date back to the first century. There's no historical evidence for this other than the account provided by Arnobius of the fall of Simon Magus, who according to him withdrew to Brindisi along with cast himself from a high rock into the sea.
The Diocese of Brindisi at first embraced the territory comprised within the present Diocese of Oria. In the tenth century, after Brindisi had been destroyed by the Saracens, the bishops took up their abode at Oria, on account of its greater security. In 1591, after the death of Bishop Bernardino di Figueroa, Oria was made the seat of a new diocese. In the reorganization of the dioceses of the Kingdom of Naples in 1818 Brindisi was together with the Diocese of Ostuni, formerly its suffragan. Brindisi has been an archiepiscopal see since the tenth century. The ancient cathedral was found outside the city, but in 1140 Roger II, King of Sicily along with Naples, established the current cathedral at the centre of the city.
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