Ruvo was founded by the Apulians and was colonised around the fourth century BC, which was the town’s most prosperous period, thanks to an abundant trade with the local populations and with the Etruscans. The town also had its own currency. However, it is the local churches which now form the town’s main cultural heritage. The early history of this settlement can be studied in the ceramic objects housed in the National Museum “Jatta”. The black and the red figure vases of Corinthian and Attic origin, reveal the lively trade with ancient Greece, while the Apulian ceramics bear witness to contacts and trade with Taranto and with the Etruscans. The co-cathedral of Ruvo di Puglia, dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Santa Maria Assunta) is one of the most important examples of Apulian Romanesque architecture. It was constructed between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and has experienced various later alterations. The building is the “ecclesia mater” or mother church of the area and is the focal point of the historic town centre.