マルティニャーノの洞窟・トップ9

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A beautiful castle with a suggestive façade adorned with numerous statues. Inside the very interesting exhibition of Giuseppe Palumbo, the photographer on a bicycle who documented Salento between 1907 and 1959 and in the various rooms an exhibition path with original images, articles and studies dedicated to the phenomenon of tarantism. A short distance away in the enchanting historic center of Corigliano d'Otranto is the church of San Nicola Vescovo with a valuable mosaic depicting the tree of life.

In the hamlet of the same name in the municipality of Vernole, in the Lecce area, Acaya Castle was built in the 16th century by Gian Giacomo of the Acaya family, on behalf of Charles V, the famous sovereign on whose empire "the sun never set".

Beautiful castle in Puglia

Martano, one of the symbolic places of Salento Greece, also widely known internationally, in winter turns out to be a quiet Salento village immersed in its silence and slow rhythms without the lively coming and going of people that swarm the historic core of the summer periods. Early in the morning this state of calm is even more emphasized and is probably the ideal time to cycle through its alleys and enjoy this state of affairs.

Walloon oak approx. *year 1000

"The Castle of Corigliano d'Otranto represents, according to the words of G. Bacile di Castiglione, the «most beautiful monument of military and feudal architecture of the beginning of the sixteenth century in the Terra d'Otranto», and certainly constitutes the most successful example of the transition from medieval square towers to round Renaissance ones. The adaptation to the new war requirements, with the introduction of gunpowder, therefore led, in the sixteenth century, to the architectural revolution of the castle, which was equipped with a deep moat and agile and effective defensive structures, such as the curtains with battlements and the four circular towers, embellished with friezes, dedicated to four saints linked to four cardinal virtues".

I'm not talking about any village, but about one of the most beautiful ancient villages in Italy located in the heart of Salento: the fortified town of Acaya. It is a small fraction of Vernole, with just over 400 inhabitants, an area rich in history and a few kilometers from the sea. Its particular historical importance is due precisely to being the only example of a fortified city in Southern Italy, with a seventeenth-century appearance and a typically Renaissance imprint in style, which has survived the centuries and wars almost unscathed.