Near Piazza Castello, crossing Via della Giudecca, is a scenic area of ​​the old town consisted of narrow alleys and courtyard houses, for the most part still whitewashed, following the traditional use of lime, linked to hygienic and sterilizing potentialities of milk of lime. The neighborhood is built around Via Santa Maria del Foggiaro leading to Via delle Muraglie. It deals with the old Jewish neighborhood of Alessano, where the presence of this resourceful community is attested from the 14th century until the beginning of the 16th, when the Jews left the Regno di Napoli following the edicts of expulsion of Ferdinando il Cattolico in 1510 and Charles V in 1541. In the area of ​​Via della Giudecca was their meeting place, the Synagogue, destroyed as a result of the edict of 1510 ...

The Frantoio ipogeo Cacciatore is located under the current headquarters of Pro Loco of Morciano di Leuca. The building is also home to Consorzio delle Pro Loco del Capo di Leuca and del Museo del Territorio. The historical center of Morciano di Leuca is characterized by the presence of numerous oil mills that bear witness to the significant olive oil economy of which the town lived by in the past. There are about eighteen of these mills in just the historical center; some of them can be dated back to the ninth century. Underground mills and granaries were discovered by chance as a result of the public works since 1917. At the side entrance of the Palazzo Municipale, a big wheel of limestone located outside the building testifies the presence of another oil mill, probably used up to ...

The oil mill is located near Via Roma 63 and exactly like the other mills in the undergrounds of Morciano di Leuca, it came  from the destruction of a Messapian granary. The historic center of Morciano di Leuca is characterized by the presence of numerous oil mills testify to the significant olive oil economy of which the town lived by in the past. There are about eighteen of these mills in just the historic center; some of them can be traced back to the 9th century. Underground mills and granaries were discovered by chance as a result of the public works since 1917. At the side entrance of the Palazzo Municipale, a big wheel of limestone located outside the building testifies the presence of another oil mill, probably used up to 18th-19th centuries. ...

The crypt, entirely carved into the tuff rocks, is the result of modifications and additions in the place and in the architecture, as demonstrated by the two circular columns with Doric capital of the sixteenth century, the addition of an altar on the east wall, topped by a seventeenth-century fresco depicting the Crucifixion (hence the name of the crypt), a skylight created later and the occlusion of the original entrance on the west. It is accessible through the northern door, which is followed by a barrel-vaulted staircase that leads to the underground room. The entrance is decorated with a frescoed lunette with the Holy Family scene. Inside, the walls and ceiling are covered with frescoes dating between the thirteenth and the seventeenth century, accompanied by inscriptions in Greek ...

For its austere square frame, some historians trace its origin even up to Roman times, while the upper floor is attributed to the Norman period. During the Angevin period, the castle, in an irregular trapezoidal plan with corner towers, was renovated several times and Charles of Anjou, during his visit to Salento in 1273, stayed as a guest of Count Adenolfo XI Aquinas. In 1537, following the occupation of the city by the barbarians led by the Algerian pirate Barbarossa, the castle was severely damaged: two towers were destroyed as much as the rest of the west wing, the ground floor and first floor. The manor, rebuilt in 1642 by Count Vaaz de Andrada, has undergone a major renovation in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century by the will of the owners of the time, Nicola and ...

Originating from the destruction of a Messapian granary, the mill is located under Palazzo Pizzileo. Nearby is the Trappeto Cacciatore. The mill was restored recently, but is currently inaccessible. The historic center of Morciano di Leuca is characterized by the presence of numerous oil mills that testify the significant olive oil economy of which the town lived by in the past. There are about eighteen of these mills in just the historic center; some of them can be traced back to the ninth century. Underground mills and granaries were discovered by chance as a result of the public works since 1917. At the side entrance of the Palazzo Municipale, a big wheel of limestone located outside the building testifies the presence of another oil mill, probably used up ...

The Santuario di Santa Marina, located in the hamlet of Ruggiano, is part of a medieval sanctuary remodeled several times over the centuries. The facade looks simple and linear, based on a unique order of Ionic pilasters that mark the aspect in two symmetrical and vertical registers, and ends up with horizontal beams and a large triangular pediment with frame moldings of a bull, a throat and teeth. In addition to this sober setting is the rococo sculptural ornamentation of the portals, the windows and the vertex of the tympanum. The interior has two naves and reflects the particular structure of the facade.   The church keeps notable works including a wooden statue and a fresco depicting the image of the owner represented as a young virgin who dominates a monstrous dragon ...

The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra, is located on the outskirts of the village, where a farm was once open. The church probably dates back to the eleventh century and is one of the medieval remains of the territory. The structure has a single nave with south / east - north / west indications to the point where the sun rises on the day of the feast of St. Nicholas (6 December).   The church was restored in 1587 transforming it into its current appearance, throughout the transition from the Greek-Byzantine rite, which was previously practiced, into the Latin rite. Inside, however, a stone remained that refers to its ancient origins. The roof in double truss was replaced by the current vault in tuff. The date and the coat of arms of Specchia are engraved on the key. It has a ...

Taking Via Tempio from the small square in front of the Tricase cathedral, a small structure can be found, which in present time is privately owned, and is easily identified as a small church for the shape of its facade.   The facade is very simple with a portal surmounted by a rose window.   Inside, the structure has a rectangular plan and ends with a pseudo-apse on which a door opens that connects to the house behind it, which probably have been the accommodation of the monks. A picture of Mary used to be above the door, which left no trace of its remains.   During the restoration, an ossuary in a tufaceous bank was discovered from under the floor. ...

  Palazzo Gallone, in the center of Tricase, consists of three main elements: the fortress, the tower and the actual body of the building. The tower, built in the fifteenth century, was equipped with a walled enclosure and a drawbridge, according to the military architectural design of the era. With a scarped base and defended by watchtowers and machicolation, it can be considered one of the most impressive towers of the Terra d'Otranto. Prisons, located inside, still retain the graffiti of prisoners. A wall with a 400 m long moat completed the defense system along with other smaller towers.   In 1661 the Prince of Tricase, Stefano Gallone, obtained the tower and the nearby fortress on the west and began the construction of the palace on a former baronial mansion. ...

  The foundations  of Tutino was erected in the fifteenth century to defend the villagers. The massive walls, 6-7 meters high, are made of stone and bolus and have a scarped base. The castle is aggregated with five of the nine towers of the surrounding medieval walls. The towers were connected by a walkway, still visible in some places. It is one of the few castles in Salento which preserves its original moat. On the eastern side, the moat gives way to an elegant Renaissance façade, articulated on two levels with a severe portal surmounted by the coat of arms. Each of the seven windows of the facade decoration bears a motto in Latin. ...

A wide area in the town of Depressa is occupied by the castle/palace of the Winspeare barons and most especially by the large annexed garden. The castle has a rectangular plan of the sixteenth-century structure in which the two square towers, the open gallery, the great monumental staircase, and the brackets on the west side that supported the walkway, are all still recognizable. At the central courtyard, a porch was added in the late nineteenth century. Surrounded by stone walls and blocks of tuff, the garden, built in the late nineteenth century, consists of two parts; one closer to the palace with concentric paths and trails in a set of rays among a dense vegetation of reeds, and a part marked by perpendicular paths and parallel to the central axis of the citrus ...

The abbey is an ancient monastery complex of the IX century, later incorporated within a fortified farm complex. Only ruins and parts of walls remained of the original structure. The highly preserved part is the dovecote tower, located at a short distance from the abbey and still in the countryside. ...

The church, dedicated to Madonna Assunta, has a rectangular plan with a single hall, a simple facade and a small bell tower. The interior was decorated with frescoes, today highly deteriorated, including an interesting fresco depicting St. Paul with the sword on which a snake is wrapped around while at the foot of the saint is a scorpion surmounted by two intertwined snakes in the form of caduceus. This particular iconography of the Saint associates it with the typical phenomenon of Salento tarantism: referring to an episode in which, according to tradition, St. Paul, while in Malta, was bitten by a snake, but the poison did not cause him any damage, for this he obtained the title of protector against bites of poisonous animals and, consequently, the patron saint of tarantate.   ...

The small church was rebuilt in the sixteenth century on the Serra dei Cianci, along Via dei Pellegrini.   The church is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1218, when it was part of the property belonging to the abbey of St. Nicola of Casole.   It has a simple rectangular plan and a single nave. The numerous interventions endured by the church over the centuries have totally altered its original appearance. Today, the church is in a very bad state of conservation and maintenance.   ...

The Cripta dell'Eternità o della Trinità is located on the northwest of Serra conjoining Casarano in Ruffano. The crypt occupies the space of the Trinity or Eternity cave, privately owned and more than 30 m deep. The crypt has an irregularly triangular plan, with high vault and a wide arc opening facing west. ...

The Chapel of Our Lady of Itri presents a simple neoclassical facade consisting of a portal with tympanum and central two-mullioned window. The interior has a single room with an altar in Leccese stone, behind which a small door allows access to the Byzantine church, with a rectangular plan, dedicated to St. Nicholas. The church, entirely frescoed, presents six overlapping phases on the walls from which it is possible to gather information about the style and the different periods in which the frescoes were made. At the foot of the east wall is a depiction of Our Lady of Itri. A small Baroque altar, of the 17th century, holds the statues of Mary, of an unknown saint, probably St. Irene, and of St. Marina. At its left is a niche that was intended as prosthesis, the altar of the Orthodox ...

The church presents a mono-apex façade, framed between two pilasters, following the Neoclassical style. On the portal is an ovoid-shaped niche in which the image of St. Stephen kneeling is painted, with his white tunic and a cross-signed diaconal, on a Palestinian landscape background. Standing arrear is the square bell tower of 1892, on top of which is a statue of the saint. The most notable surviving element of the medieval chapel is the central part of the façade; it was saved because, in subsequent reconstructions and renovations, it had been first used as posterior wall then as a dividing wall between the space behind the altar and the room for the sacristy in the current building. The interior, with a single nave, contains a wooden statue of St. Stephen ...

The façade of the church is characterized by a portal framed between two columns surmounted by capitals, which support two squatting animals, a lion and a bull, from which are grafted cusps creating a kind of portico. The portal consists of three carved concentric bands, interlacing the geometric and plant motifs, which enclose the architrave where the Annunciation is represented: the scene is framed between two columns where two rampant birds (peacocks), archangel Gabriele (left) and the figure of the Virgin seated on a throne (right) are juxtaposed; the angelic salutation is engraved in Greek between the figures. At the center, the rose window has three carved concentric crowns. The inner band is made with intertwining plants, among which you can see small figures of ...

The rock settlement of Macurano extends on the sides of Serra of Alessano, about 550 m NNE of the ancient town of Montesardo, in an area now dotted with farms. The complex consists of 31 cavities, dug into the limy rocks; some relevant to the original core, the oldest, while the others are related to the latest arrangements and particularly to the fortified farms, whose construction has involved excavation of the cavities functional to the activities connected to them. The equipped area corresponds to the oldest part of the settlement. The most recurrent type is the unicellular cave with an elliptical or sub-circular plan, only once quadrangular, with a Lytic pillar leaning against the back wall. The entrances, of rectangular form, are often provided with steps linking the decking ...

The crypt of the Madonna del Passo, of Basilian origin, is located near the municipal cemetery of Specchia. The structure, of a square shape, has a nave with two side altars and a main central altar, surmounted by a canopy bordered by columns, which contains a central fresco of Mary and Child. On the walls of the hypogeum are traces of ancient frescoes.   In front of the crypt, is a shelter for travelers who repose under the covered passages and benefited from a nearby cistern.   On the exterior of church-crypt, in 1851, a Calvary was built. ...