The Petruzzelli Theater in Bari is the fourth-largest opera house in Italy and one of the most important, with La Scala in Milan, La Fenice in Venice, the Regio in Turin, the San Carlo in Naples and the Massimo in Palermo.

The project for the theater was presented by the Petruzzelli brothers, Onofrio and Antonio, to their brother-in-law Angelo Messeni, engineer for Bari City Council and husband to their sister Maria, in 1896. Construction, however, started only two years later, in 1898.