Three thousand years of baking, from the Phoenicians to the alleys of old Bari. How a simple dough became the symbol of an entire city.
“In Bari, focaccia is not just food: it is a daily ritual, a symbol of identity, almost a declaration of love for the city. It tells the story of Apulia: the wheat, the oil, the sun, the conviviality.” — Felice Giovine, Apulian historian, founder of the Centro Studi Baresi
3000 BC — The origins
The most distant roots of focaccia reach back to Phoenician civilisation. A simple dough of millet, barley, water and salt, baked on red-hot stone: it was already focaccia, three thousand years ago, long before pizza. Carthaginians and Greeks carried traces of it to their banquets, and those traditions took root in Apulian soil through the trade routes of the Mediterranean.
2nd century BC — Ancient Rome
Marcus Porcius Cato, in his treatise De Agri Cultura (2nd century BC), describes ritual doughs baked in the oven: from this comes the term panis focacius, from the Latin focus (hearth), at the origin of the word "focaccia". In ancient Rome these preparations often had ritual value and were offered as gifts to the gods.
Middle Ages — Frederick II
As time passed and medieval courts evolved, focaccia became more refined. According to tradition, at the court of Frederick II of Swabia — an emperor who loved Apulia and spent much of his reign there — several focaccia recipes were developed. By the Renaissance it was already present at wedding banquets, served with wine as a sign of conviviality.
Apulian origins — Altamura and Laterza
Focaccia as we know it today was probably born in the lands between Altamura and Laterza. The idea was practical and brilliant: before baking the loaves, a disc of raw dough was spread on the pan, dressed with extra virgin olive oil, ripe tomatoes and olives, making use of the wood oven's initial heat. From a humble trick to a sought-after speciality.
Until the 1960s — The neighbourhood ovens
For generations, many Bari families prepared the dough at home and took it to the neighbourhood oven. Each pan was marked so the baker could recognise it. Around those ovens, social microcosms formed: gossip, recipe swaps, shared waiting. Focaccia was the community's glue.
20th century — The Bari identity
It was in the twentieth century that the fecàzze took on its definitive identity. The children's snack, the fishermen's bite, the star of December 6th for Saint Nicholas. Historic bakeries — such as Panificio Fiore in the old town (open for over a hundred years) or Panificio Arciuli, founded in 1890 — became places of gastronomic pilgrimage.
Today — Heritage and global street food
Today focaccia barese is one of the great Italian street foods recognised internationally. It has reached northern Italy and international markets, keeping its irreducible features: durum wheat semolina, boiled potato in the dough, Apulian extra virgin olive oil, hand-crushed cherry tomatoes, Bari olives.
The recipe is handed down within families with small differences from area to area, but there are three canonical variations recognised by tradition.
The version par excellence: fresh cherry tomatoes hand-crushed onto the surface, black Bari olives and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Oregano scattered on top. The topping goes on before baking, not after.
The richest white version: the whole surface is covered with potato slices about 5 mm thick, drizzled with oil and seasoned with coarse salt. A focaccia that tastes of home, of Sunday mornings, of family lunches.
The most essential: just coarse salt and sprigs of fresh rosemary. The dough speaks for itself, with its soft, open crumb and crisp, oily base. Perfect with mortadella — the "mortazza" — as true Bari locals like it.
The modern legend
In 2001 a large McDonald's opened in Altamura. Shortly after, next to the chain, the Altamura baker Luca Di Gesù (Antica Casa Digesù bakery) kept baking traditional bread and focaccia.
In December 2002 the Altamura McDonald's closed due to poor profitability. The story — beyond how much the focaccia actually weighed on it — became a symbol and inspired the docufilm Focaccia Blues (2009) by Nico Cirasola, a tale of local flavours resisting food homogenisation.
“McDonald's opened. The bakery stayed.
The focaccia became legend.”
Focaccia barese is listed among the Traditional Agri-Food Products (PAT) of the Apulia region. Over the years the Focaccia Barese Consortium has promoted the protection and enhancement of the recipe, aiming for European recognition as a TSG — Traditional Speciality Guaranteed. A path that certifies what the people of Bari have always known: this is a unique recipe, with a history and an identity that deserve protection.
A question many people ask. "Apulian focaccia" is the generic name for the focaccia tradition across all of Apulia; "focaccia barese" is its most famous, identity-defining version, born in Bari. In other words, focaccia barese is an Apulian focaccia: the best known and most widespread.
Three elements make it unmistakable: the durum wheat semolina of the Apulian milling tradition, the boiled potato in the dough that makes it soft, and baking in the blue iron pan, finished with hand-crushed cherry tomatoes, Bari olives and oregano. There are other local Apulian variations too, but when you look for authentic "Apulian focaccia", the most direct reference is precisely the original focaccia barese recipe.
The historical reconstructions of focaccia's ancient and medieval origins draw on culinary tradition and popular sources; documentary references are given where possible.
Discover the original recipe, the authentic ingredients and where to taste real focaccia barese.