Tourist information on hotels, campgrounds, resorts, bed & breakfasts...on beaches, castles, churches, traditional products, cathedrals and natural parks in Apulia

Your trip starts here.... on the region of Salento’s tourism portal.

Apulia - SALENTO panhandle into the sea, beautiful garden overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, network of roads and maritime trades.

Puglia, region where every foreigner is warmly welcomed and every needy is lent a helping hand.
Guests are here to behold try and guess how they will be treated.

Lecce also known as the capital of the Baroque style, "the Florence of Puglia" rich in incredibly beautiful monuments.

A walk in the streets of the city centre - near Porta Rudiae - will be enough to admire many majestic sites, such as the Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of Saint Croce), Piazza del Duomo (Dome square), Chiese di SS. Nicolò e Cataldo (Churches of Saints Niccolò and Cataldo, commissioned by Tancredi), Chiesa di S. Matteo and Del Rosario (Churches of S. Matthew and of the Holy Rosary), l'Anfiteatro Flavio (The Flavio Amphitheatre), Palazzo del Governo (Palace of the Government), now seat of the Administration of the Province of Lecce (names have been given in their original forms, as well as in a translated one).

In these Baroque-style Churches there are many bas-reliefs, made of a particulary soft local stone known as "tufo".

Otranto is eastern-most tip of Italy. Anciently known as "Hydruntum", Otranto was, for many years, the most important centre of the entire Salento: Those days commercial exchanges were flourishing, and from Hydruntum cristian expeditions set off for battle.

In 1480 the byzantines' occupation put an end to the town's splendour. On that occasion the local people put up heroic resistance for 15 days, then the besieged town fell in the hands of the invaders.

Locally known as "the pearl of Salento" for its beaches, Otranto is rich in tourist facilities and sights, such as the old town - lined up with small outlets swarming with people - and the majestic Aragonese Castle.

The fortification, surrounded by a wide moat, overlooks the main access-road into town, whereas a big spike overlooks the sea. Its circular towers and its walls, kept in almost perfect conditions, are a clear example of open-sky architecture.

Through a maze of narrow streets paved in pebblestone it is possible to reach the "Cattedrale dell'Annunziata" (Cathedral of the Announcer), while beholding the beautiful baroque-style decorations over the portal. Beautiful is the fretworked 16-spoke rose window. Inside the Cathedral on the floor is a beautiful mosaic representing a huge tree of life.

Torre dell'Orso
Along the coastline, in the tract bounded in the south by Otranto and in the north by the Park of Cesine, one of the finest nature reserves in Italy, there is the coastal area that comprises the coasts of Melendugno: San Foca, Roca, Torre dell'Orso; this area spreads for 12 kilometres.

Grecia Salentina

In the heart of Salento there is an area called “Grecìa Salentina” Greek Salento which consists of the following villages: Calimera, Martano, Castrignano de’ Greci, Sternatia, Corigliano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Zollino

Gallipoli - whose meaning in Greek (Kalé polis) is beautiful city - is known as the Queen of the low Ionian region.

Among its attractions is the old town, located on a little island (connected to the city centre by a bridge), some wonderful churches - with their façades made of a local sandy stone called "carparo" - gleaming in the sunset light, the "Cattedrale di S. Agata" (St. Agatha Cathedral), the "Chiesa di S. Francesco d'Assisi" (Church of St. Francis from Assisi), where the "Mallandrone", a wooden baroque-style crucifix is keptTthe "Castello Aragonese" (Aragonese Castle), standing out beside the fish market, seems to pop right out of the sea.

The "Fontana Greca" (Greek Fountain), built during the Roman period and restored in 1547, is made of two façades with high reliefs representing scenes of classic mythology.

Santa Maria di Leuca southern-most tip of Salento, is the place where the seas surrounding salentine coasts (Adriatic and Ionian ones) meet (at Punta Ristola). A lighthouse, 47 metres high and 102 metres above sea level, overlooks the town from a promontory.

Its beacons are visible 26.5 miles away from the lighthouse.

The "Santuario della Madonna di S.M. di Leuca" (Sanctuary of the Holy Mother of Leuca), built on the ruins of a temple dedicated to Minerva, has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries.

Thanks to Its geographical position Leuca has gained the appellation of "Santuario de Finibus Terrae" (Sanctuary of the Finibus Terrae), like a place of cult situated in the western-most place of Brittany.

A monumental water fall, built as the terminal part of the "Acquedotto Pugliese" - Aqueduct of Puglia, the regional system of waterways, which is the biggest one in Europe - is made up of a cascade and two flights of stairs of more than 300 steps each links up the local Port to the Sanctuary.

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Leuca Piccola (Barbarano) XVII-XVIII centuries
Group of buildings in the outskirts of town, made of tunnels dug into the rocks, originally built as shelters for the pilgrims that those days headed for the Sanctuary of Leuca.

Patu' Cento Pietre (Monument of the one-hundred stones).

Old burial monument made of isodome blocks (100 according to tradition) in the shape of a parallelepiped, almost certainly brought here from the nearby messapian town "Vereto", destroyed by the Saraceni in the IX century.

This monument was built to bury the French General Geminian, killed by the Saracens during an attempt of some kind of negotiations.

Tricase
Quercia dei 100 cavalieri (Oak tree of the one-hundred knights) Centuries-old specimen of Valonia Oak tree, dating back to the XII-XIV century.

The trunk has a diameter of 1.5 meters and the foliage has a surface of 500 sqm.


Cripta del Gonfalone (Crypt of the Gonfalon)
Crypt of the IX century dedicated to the Holy Mother, whose access to the inside is through two flights of stairs.

Pillars and columns of several shapes are found inside. At the center of the crypt there is a presbytery with octagonal pillars and a balaustrade, inside of which is a Baroque-style altar.

Chiesa Paleocristiana di S.Maria della Croce o di Casaranello
V century (Early Christian Church of the Holy Mother of the Cross)
Made precious by a polychrome apsidal mosaic (V century) and by frescoes (XIII century) on the walls of the central nave, the church has been subject of study by many researchers: Haseloff (1907), Vartoccini (1934), Prandi (1961), Trinci-Cecchelli (1974).

The latest supported the theory - strenghtened by subsequent researches - that the building was not built on a Greek-Cross layout but on a Latin-Cross one.

Acquarica del Capo Cappella della Madonna dei panelli o panetti (Chapel of the Holy Mother of the Loaves)
The religious monument dates back to the XI century.

Its name derives from the Greek form "Panellios" (meaning "all greek"), to indicate the greek origins of the church. It is locally believed that "Madonna dei Panetti" was chosen as a name since the church was erected near a corn field.

The corn was used to make food for the poor. It is small (7 x 7 metres) and its layout is a single room, with two semi-circular apsides with a cap on the right side. Its cross vault is laid on local stone "tufo" pillars.

Inside are two frescos and some graffiti of the byzantine period (XI-XII), in total decay.

Specchia Chiesa di S.Eufemia (Church - Small building with a sloping roof dating back to the IX - X centuries.

The cult of Saint Eufemia, of greek origins, was brought to Salento after the Concilio di Nicea (Council of Nicea) of 787, when the re-introduction of the cult of images brought about a passage to a religious practice in churches rather than in crypts or "Laure".

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Copertino is famous for its fortified castle, clearly reneissance in style not only for its military characteristics, but also with respect to its artistic and decorative aspects.
The building, that has a four-side layout and was built on the remnants of a previous agevin fortifications, is linked up to the outer walls of the ancient town.
All around it a deep moat was built in 1540 by the military engineer Evangelista Menga.
The mighty angular ramparts, with 90 gunports, made up one of the most impressive fortifications of the entire Salento.
The magnificent reneissance portal, a real triumph of sculpture, is a representation in effigies of some famous people that contributed, in some ways, to the building of the castle and, more in general, the history of the region.

Nardò Marine's has the old town centre full of beautiful squares, churches and palaces in the baroque style, such as the "Palazzo del Comune" - which is a castle built in the XV century - and the Church of S. Domenico, built in the XVI century and restored after the earthquake of 1743.
The "Guglia dell'Immacolata" (steeple of the Holy Mother), built in 1769, is a typical example of urban architecture of the baroque age.


Galatone The "Chiesa del Crocifisso" (Church of the Crucifix) is the most important monument of this town. Built between 1696 and 1710, it has a majestic façade made of 3 layers, - the narrowest of all is the one toward the top - and decorated with many friezes, nicues hosting statues, the entrance gate and a window closed by a fretworked transenna.
The inside is roofed by a precious lacunar golden-plated ceiling and many frescos on the couple.

Ugento
Ugento boasts a long and interesting history: it was an important Messapic town as the numerous archaeological finds discovered in this area and the strong and long walls (5 km) confirm

Santa Cesarea Terme
Towards the farthest point of Italy's heel, beyond Cap of Otranto where the Adriatic waters blend with the Ionian Sea, Santa Cesarea Terme rises vertically on the reefs facing a crystal-clear and blue sea.

The coastal towers, lining up the whole coastline from the Gargano to Salento, date back to the XVI century, which was a crucial time for the region, when the incursions of the turkish pirates threatened the local people.

These small towers were not built to fight off the invaders, but to signal the arrival of pirates, since from one tower to another signs were visible and the towns far from the coast were alerted in emergency times.

The coves: in the salento it is on the ionic depositor that adriatic finds several coves that with their spectacular panorama they leave the tourist emotions difficult to forget.

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Zinzulusa cave
TRADITIONS - TARANTULA BITE