Galatina (source: Visual Puglia )
Galatina is located 20 km south of Lecce. Its origins date back to the first Byzantine colonization. Some 1200 sources cite the importance of the centre of Greek culture. The city also has contaminations of Latin culture, primarily in its religious functions, due to the dissemination by the Normans at the beginning of the 11th century. The Popes called for the latinisation of Galatina to the detriment of the Greek and Byzantine culture. According to tradition Saint Peter introduced Catholicism here upon his return from Antioch, a circumstance that gave it the name of San Pietro in Galatina until the Unification of Italy. The Orsini del Balzo lords, in addition to increasing the economic development of the area, guided Galatina’s population towards the liberation of Pope Urban VI from the prison near Nocera. The eighteenth century building expansion resulted in the construction of churches and elegant buildings decorated with impressive portals and balconies, the “building with central courtyard” which various buildings overlooked was the typical architectural style of the period. Following the urban reorganization Galatina became one of the few cities paved with exposed stone.
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Sun, sea, wind. Nature strikes in the first place, when one gets to this land stretch in balance between two seas. Salento has its core in the province of Lecce, - a Baroque Florence in Southern Italy – and reaches the provinces of Brindisi over the Adriatic Sea, and Taranto on the Ionian Sea side. The cities and inland towns expressions of the unique Lecce Baroque with Messapi and Salento Grecìa can still be seen. Its language, songs and feasts still show the culture of Graecia Magna. Surf, kite-surf and windsurf lovers never miss the beaches facing the Alimini lakes, while scuba diving fans just have to choose among the several equipped centers and charming sea beds of the Ionian coast as well as of the area between Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca.
Church and hermitage of Santa Maria of the Angels - Scorrano
Lighthouse and aqueduct - Santa Maria di Leuca
Salento coast is characterized by a high variety in landscapes: the clear, fine sand beaches of Santa Cesarea seafront; famous caves such as Castro cave with its Grotta Romanelli, one of the most important Italian prehistoric settlements, and Grotta Zinzulusa, 'the pearl of caves', owing its name to the dialect word 'zinzuli', ('rags'), used by fishermen to indicate its beautiful stalactites and stalagmites
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Baroque style affirmed in Apulia during Counter-Reformation upon the will of Roman Church. A way of exalting Catholic symbols, Lecce and Nardò Baroque has its own characteristics that make it different from the same artistic style in other regions. Its peculiarities derive from the use of amber-colored Lecce stone as well as decorations used to mask the structures on which they are mounted
In Southern Apulia, at the heart of Salento, nine municipalities united to save what is still left of the ancient Grika culture. In this area of Salento there can still be found traces of Graecia Magna Grika language spoken in the Basilian convents dismantled after the council of Trent
Project created in collaboration with InnovaPuglia.
Regione Puglia
Regione Puglia