Bari, “Vidua Vidue” celebration to commemorate the liberation from the Saracen Siege.

They will take place today, Friday 15 November, and Saturday 16 November, the events promoted by the association of the “Cavalieri di San Nicola” to recall the ancient festivity of the “Vidua Vidue”.

Established in the year 1003 AD to celebrate the liberation of Bari from the Saracen siege, which began on 2 May 1002 and ended on 18 October of the same year thanks to the intervention of a Venetian fleet, the festival of the “Vidua Vidue”, whose name recalls the cry of the people of Bari who thus greeted the arrival of the liberators from the sea, was celebrated for centuries, until the mid-900s.

In 2014, in 2015 and then again in 2023, thanks to the re-enactments organised byto the “Knights of St. Nicholas”, the city has returned to relive this historical event, preserving a tradition still present in the community's memory.

The program

Today, Friday 15 November, from 17pm, in the spaces of the Civic Museum (in Strada Sagges 13) a meeting open to all citizens will take place, moderated by Giuseppe Massimo Goffredo, president of the Knights of San Nicola, during which Professor Nicola Cutino will retrace the history of the “Vidua Vidue”. The municipal councilor for Culture Paola Romano will participate in the meeting.

Saturday 16th November, at 17pm, it will be celebrated a mass at the Church of San Marco dei Veneziani. Following this, a torchlight procession will pass through the alleys of the Old City to discover the most hidden places that tell the story of those days and of the centuries-old friendship that binds two great Adriatic cities such as Bari and Venice.