Along the sides of the ravine as it snakes its way around the town are the ruins of rock-cut settlements so distinctive of Ginosa. These are the settlements of people who cut their houses and churches into the rock. There are two parts of the rock village: Rione Casale and Rione di Rivolta.
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5 Historical Landmarks that Tell the Stories of Ginosa
Discover the stories of a town in southern Italy where the inhabitants were living in rock-cut caves for centuries; from the time of the Romans to the not so distant past. Ginosa – a town off the beaten track, even for Puglia.
Thomas Dowson
Last Checked and/or Updated 15 December 2021
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Like many towns in Puglia, Ginosa owes its fascination to its geographical location as much as its history. Both the physical and historical aspects of the town are immediately visible. In fact the two are intertwined, and have been for centuries.
Many, many thousands of years ago a u-shaped bend in a river, as it meanders its way towards the Gulf of Taranto (about 20km away), created a spur of land that has obviously been very attractive to successive inhabitants of Ginosa. Over the centuries people have built on this spur and in the horseshoe-shaped ravine giving Ginosa its distinctive character today. These five historical landmarks are a great way to discover that character.
Peucetian Funerary Structure
Perhaps not as prominent as some of the other landmarks, but significant nonetheless. On the edge of the square in front of the town hall are the oldest remains of human habitation on view in Ginosa. Just below street level and underneath a row of holm oak trees is a series of Peucetian tombs, left exposed and visible through glass covers.
Little is known about the Peucetians. They are one of three Iapygian populations that occupied what is Puglia today; the other two being the Daunians and Messapians. Some archaeologists have suggested that the Iapygians are descendants of the Illyrians, who crossed the Adriatic Sea and settled in southern Italy during the 9th century BC.
Whatever their origins, artefacts excavated by archaeologists show they were in close contact with the nearby Greek colonies, such as Metaponto and Taranto. It was the Roman defeat of these Greek colonies in southern Italy in the Phyrric War (280 to 275 BC) that lead to the incorporation of the region into the Roman Republic.
During the construction of the square in front of the Ginosa’s town hall, builders came across a Peucetian funerary complex. The necropolis was excavated by archaeologists and left open, but covered with protect glass structures to enable people to see the different types of tombs. One limestone sarcophagus stands above ground on the square; a few others can be seen in their original place within the tombs.
Troglodyte Village
Along the sides of the ravine as it snakes its way around the town are the ruins of rock-cut settlements so distinctive of Ginosa. These are the settlements of people who cut their houses and churches into the rock. The best place to visit these dwellings is on the eastern side of the town, in the Rione di Rivolta.
Towards the end of the 5th century AD when the Roman Empire came under attack from the Goths and other Germanic tribes attacking Rome, the open plains were no longer safe. And it was then that people sought refuge in the relatively safer ravines. The soft, limestone bedrock made it easy to cut into the sides of the ravines to create places to live that were easier to protect against the Goths to begin with, but also the Saracens later.
Over the turbulent centuries of the Middle Ages that followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire fully developed communities emerged in these ravines. These early Medieval troglodytes ‘built’ surprisingly complex villages simply by cutting into the rock at different levels. Besides creating domestic spaces – Casa Grotto (cave house), they also cut churches into the sides of the ravines. They also cut channels and cisterns into the rock to supply water.