Thanks to its strategic position, Gravina has a very ancient history.
Its territory has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, due to the high presence of water and woods.
The largest remains date back to the Neolithic.
The oldest settlements have been identified in the districts of Botromagno, S.Paolo, Vagnari, S.Stefano and S.Staso (early Christian).
The city has been known with the names Sidis (Σίδις), Sylbion (Σιλβìον), Sidio, Silvium, Petramagna or Botromagno (name of the hill where the ancient inhabited area has developed).
An important find of a skeleton belonging to an Asiatic man in the Vagnari necropolis testifies the existence of relations between the town of Gravina and the Far East already in 200 BCE.

The town was then colonized by the Greeks during the colonization of Greater Greece, as a polis with the right of a mint of his own.
Diodorus notes it as an Apulian town, which was wrested from the Samnites by the Romans during the 3rd Samnite War (305 or 306 BCE).
 It was a town in the interior of Apulia.
It is noticed by Strabo as the frontier town of the Peucetii, and its name is noticed by Pliny among the municipal towns of Apulia.
 The Via Appia, which linked Rome to Brindisi, passed through Gravina.
 The Itineraries place it 20 miles (32 km) from Venusia, on the branch of the Appian Way which led direct to Tarentum.

Later it was ruled by Byzantines, Lombards and North African Muslims.

The city was the site of a Norman countship in the Hauteville Kingdom of Sicily and in the later Kingdom of Naples.
A famous count of the former was Gilbert, who was sent by his cousin, the Queen regent Margaret of Navarre to the peninsula to combat the Holy Roman Emperor.
In the latter period it was the hereditary fief of John, Duke of Durazzo.
 The Normans called the town Garagnone or Garaynone.

From 1386 to 1816 it was a fief of the Orsini family: the pope Benedict XIII (Pietro Francesco Orsini-Gravina) was born here in 1649.
Feudal oppression led to numerous riots, in particular from 1789 until the unification of Italy (1861).

Gravina in Puglia was partly destroyed by Allied bombings during World War II.
Thanks to its strategic position, Gravina has a very ancient history. Its territory has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, due to the high presence of water and woods. The largest remains date back to the Neolithic. The oldest settlements have been identified in the districts of Botromagno, S.Paolo, Vagnari, S.Stefano and S.Staso (early Christian). The city has been known with the names Sidis (Σίδις), Sylbion (Σιλβìον), Sidio, Silvium, Petramagna or Botromagno (name of the hill where the ancient inhabited area has developed). An important find of a skeleton belonging to an Asiatic man in the Vagnari necropolis testifies the existence of relations between the town of Gravina and the Far East already in 200 BCE.
The town was then colonized by the Greeks during the colonization of Greater Greece, as a polis with the right of a mint of his own. Diodorus notes it as an Apulian town, which was wrested from the Samnites by the Romans during the 3rd Samnite War (305 or 306 BCE).  It was a town in the interior of Apulia. It is noticed by Strabo as the frontier town of the Peucetii, and its name is noticed by Pliny among the municipal towns of Apulia.  The Via Appia, which linked Rome to Brindisi, passed through Gravina.  The Itineraries place it 20 miles (32 km) from Venusia, on the branch of the Appian Way which led direct to Tarentum. 
Later it was ruled by Byzantines, Lombards and North African Muslims.
The city was the site of a Norman countship in the Hauteville Kingdom of Sicily and in the later Kingdom of Naples. A famous count of the former was Gilbert, who was sent by his cousin, the Queen regent Margaret of Navarre to the peninsula to combat the Holy Roman Emperor. In the latter period it was the hereditary fief of John, Duke of Durazzo.  The Normans called the town Garagnone or Garaynone.
From 1386 to 1816 it was a fief of the Orsini family: the pope Benedict XIII (Pietro Francesco Orsini-Gravina) was born here in 1649. Feudal oppression led to numerous riots, in particular from 1789 until the unification of Italy (1861).
Gravina in Puglia was partly destroyed by Allied bombings during World War II.
Gravina in Puglia