When Bari finally capitulated to the Normans in 1071, they took over a country that had largely been under Byzantine rule for around 500 years. Despite having been suppressed and forgotten for centuries, the characteristics of its rule and its enduring heritage are the subject of the “The Byzantine Heritage of Southern Italy” project. Funded by the Ministry of University and Research and carried out in collaboration with the universities of Salento, Foggia, Catania, Calabria and Basilicata, it aims to shed light on this essential part of our identity. Bringing together different fields of knowledge and disciplines, the project ranges from field archaeology and the study of artefacts to written sources and popular traditions, in order to reconstruct the complex Byzantine heritage of southern Italy. The final conference of the first stage of the project, held in Lecce in September 2024, brought together Italian and international scholars to offer new perspectives on a period that helped shape Southern Italy’s identity, memory, and cultural roots. This book is the result.