Specchia (source: Visual Puglia )
Located in the heart of Salento, near Tricase, about 60 km from Lecce, Specchia is considered one of the most gorgeous small towns in Italy. Its name stems from “specchie”, which means heaps of dry stones essentially used for defence purposes. During the Middle Ages, the settlement was called Specla de Amygdalis, then the name was changed into Specchia Mendolia until last century, Mendolia referring to the almonds (mandorle) whose tree is very common here and also appears in the town’s coat of arms. The origin of Specchia seems to date back to the IX century, when some peasants and shepherds decided to defend themselves from the enemy (the Saracens) by moving up this hill, a strategic position for an easier defence due to the presence of many caves and karst soil. To improve their defence structures, they started to build a wall with towers and military fortifications, whose remains were still visible in 1931. Today they have been incorporated in the adjacent constructions, but two rectangular towers built in the fifteenth century can be still identified. The first documents providing evidence of the existence of an urban settlement appeared after the year 1000, under the Norman rule, when Tancredi annexated it to the territory of Lecce and then gave it as a feud to the Monteroni’s in 1191. Ramondello Orsini Del Balzo acquired it in 1319. Since then Specchia had the same destiny of the Principality of Taranto until 1463, when it became a State property and then of Ferdinand of Aragon, who handed it down to the Guarini’s. Various feudatories succeeded one another until 1806, but the family that left most memories and esteem was that of Nicolò Ripa, notary of Frederick II.
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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