San Leonardo di Siponto (source: Visual Puglia )
The Abbey and Church of San Leonardo di Lama Volara (or Siponto) is located on State route 89 leading from Foggia to the sacred mountain, Gargano. It is 10 km from Manfredonia, close to the ancient Bishop’s place of Siponto, initially a Roman and later a Byzantine settlement.
The Church has three aisles with arches resting on cruciform columns and semi columns. Two dissimilar cupolas sit over the central nave. A portal with a simple contour of architraves surmounted by an undecorated lunette and an archivolt mark the external western façade. On the northern façade there is a splendid portal (among the most beautiful Apulian-Romanesque examples) which was most probably built later, possibly during the Swabian period. The decorations on it are similar to those of Santa Maria di Pulsano, another ancient Gargano monastery. Inside, a few frescoes and coats of arms bearing Teutonic crosses link us to the mid-13th century, when some monks from the Prussian Order of Teutonic Knights of St. Mary came here. In the centre of the ceiling there is a small rose window (a gnomon hole). For the last 10 centuries, on June 21st every year, the eleven petals allow the summer solstice’s rays to pass through, marking the summer solstice with the sun entering Cancer. At astronomical midday, the sun reaches its highest point in the hemisphere and a band of light throws down a luminous corona in a clockwise direction at the centre of the two pillars.
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Daunia and Gargano territories offer a wide variety of scenarios: sweet hills in Fortore river valley, Daunian Apennine area and Ofanto river valley, Gargano national park, Tavoliere delle Puglie tableland and unpolluted Tremiti archipelago. Where endless wheat stretches rise and one can watch without seeing the horizon there is the Tavoliere, a witness of Foggia, San Severo and Cerignola the agricultural tradition. The greenest area in Apulia: Gargano National Park. It stands for its vegetation, ranging from forests to maquis. Five Tremiti islands are considered as veritable natural heavens. Sea beds, caves and erosions carved by the waves and winds represent overpowering attractions for scuba divers and sea lovers.
St. Mary of the Graces and the Capuchin Monastery - San Giovanni Rotondo
Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Stignano - San Marco in Lamis
Tremiti Archipelago in north of Gargano National Park. Two of the islands have been populated since antiquity and the wonderful natural scenario they are in is enriched by the several stories and legends which have been passed over for centuries now, showing the tight connection between islanders, sea and nature
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Gargano National Park covers the whole homonymous cape and also includes Tremiti Islan archipelago. In this park there are several rare protected habitats such as Foresta Umbra ('Umbrian forest'), the last existing sample of a vegetation characterizing most of Mediterranean area during prehistory
Daunia, ancient Capitanata region, includes the Preappennines, the Apulian Tavoliere and Gargano. Its landscape is extremely diverse and ranges from the green of inland parks and forests to the yellow of wheat in the Tavoliere, to the blue of sea water in contrast with coastal white cliffs.
Project created in collaboration with InnovaPuglia.
Regione Puglia
Regione Puglia