Melendugno (source: Visual Puglia )
Along the coastline of Salento lies Melendugno since the Neolithic age, as witnessed by the dolmens found in its surroundings. The spot where history is concentrated is called Rocavecchia, a site with as much as three fortified towns dating back to as early as the XVII-XVI centuries b.C., built one on top of the other’s ruins. This is the only fortified town in Europe that was provided with walls of ashlars and bole. Roca dei Messapi was founded a few centuries later, after the destruction of the former due to a fire. Traces of the Messapic civilization, which is still mostly a mystery, have been found in the marine cave called Poesia Piccola (small poem) together with other Greek and Latin inscriptions. Roca went back to life in the XIV century d.C. thanks to the works implemented by Walter VI of Brienne, but was laid waste by the Turk army. For a certain period of time, it was the headquarter of the followers of Basil of Cesarea, who lived as hermits in underground caves. After the fall of Roca, the town was built new again, but was then abandoned in the XIX century as it was deemed to be an unhealthy area.
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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