Brindisi, (population 93.000), has the safest natural harbour on the Adriatic and consequent importance as a trading port with the East.

The city is built on a peninsula between two land-locked bays, the Seno di Ponente, on the north-west and the Seno di Levante on the east. The bays are connected with the outer harbour by the Canale Pigonati. The outer harbour is protected by the Pedagne islets and the large island of Sant'Andrea, on which stands the fortress built in 1481 by Ferdinand I of Aragon after the fall of Otranto to the Turks.
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele opens out onto the inner harbour. To the right is the Stazione Marittima; to the left the Lungomare Regina Margherita leads to a marble column, with a remarkable capital, and the base of a second column (ruined in 1528 and a later removed to Lecce), which are said to mark the end of the Appian Way. On the opposite bank, to the west of the Canale Pigonati, rises the Monument to the Italian sailor (1933), by A. Bartoli and L. Brunati, in the form of a rudder, 52m high. This may be reached by ferry and the terrace (lift) commands a fine view of the whole city.

Via Colonne leads away from the harbour and passes beneath the campanile of the cathedral to Piazza del Duomo, the religious centre of the city, comprising the 18C duomo (begun in the 11C, rebuilt in 1749) and Seminario, the 14C Loggia Balsamo, and the so-called Portico dei Cavalieri Templari. Frederick II married his second wife Yolande in the duomo in 1225. around the main altar are remains of the original mosaic pavement of 1178, with representations of animals, discovered in 1957 and 1968. The inland choir stalls date from the late 16C; the silver altar frontal, from the 18C.