CONVERSANO, a town and episcopal see of Apulia, Italy, province of Bari, 17m. S.E. by rail from the town of Bari. Pop. (town), 15,146 (commune). It has a fine southern Romanesque cathedral of the end of the 1 1 th century (the interior was destroyed by fire in 1912) and a picturesque castle which from 1456 belonged to the Acquaviva family, dukes of Atri and counts of Conversano. The convent of S. Benedetto is one of the earliest offshoots of Montecassino.