The current facade of the church is the result of numerous successive remodeling until the 20th century. The interior, by contrast, is an explosion of Baroque art with beautiful altars with finely carved and twisted columns and paintings, as the seventeenth-century Vision of St. Francis by Frate Angelo da Copertino, adorning the great nave. The nave, along with the choir, are the result of a series of interventions that occurred at different times. The choir, in fact, destroyed in December 1931 by a fire, was restored only in 2004 with an opera of a Bolivian craftsman Giuseppe Valente of Miggiano. The church contains valuable Baroque altars made of Leccese stone dedicated to St. Nicholas (1653), the Crucifix (1683), the Immaculate Conception (1781) and San Vito (1807). The Leccese-stone ...

From the obvious Spanish touch, the Palazzo Carida Ramirez is built on two levels with arcades on the ground floor and a finely decorated lodge on the main floor. Inside, it is possible to admire the vaults decorated with frescoes of the 19th century. The Palace also has a garden and a beautiful terrace overlooking the sea. ...

Located on the highest point of the Serra of Pozzomauro, or the Pozzo Magno, from the homonymous medieval house destroyed, according to tradition, by a Saracen attack in the fifteenth century; the specchia seems to still want to play its role as a lookout of the territory although only a few ruins survived from its original structure. ...

Located just outside the town of Presicce, on the road linking the town of Taurisano to the locality of Pozzomauro, is the crypt of San Mauro right around the chapel of S. Maria del Rito, a small rural church of Basilian origin. Only few ruins remain from both of the crypt and the church that, however, are worth visiting for the frescoes that decorate them, dating between the 13th and 14th centuries. The crypt is divided into two naves; however, to date it is only possible to see fragments of paintings, probably of saints including St. Catherine of Alexandria and a scene of the Annunciation in the right nave. Originally, the crypt interacted with an underground oil mill, of which some mangers, a tank and the area devoted to grinding are still present. Near the crypt is the church of ...

The Laura of Presicce is poorly preserved but like the others in southern Salento, it had to be composed of cells found in small crumblier rock-cut caves which was accessible from above through a cavity. Inside there was the "giacitoio", where the monks rested, and the crypt with frescoed wall designated for the celebration of the mass. ...

The Masseria Spiggiano, privately owned, is an ancient fortified structure completely fenced and inaccessible. In the immediate vicinity of the farm is the beautiful dovecote tower of the 16th century, belonging to the same farm. The tower, which is currently in poor condition, is situated at the foot of the Serra di Pozzomauro, has a circular form and consists of a cylindrical body in tuff erected on the bedrock. It is accessible by a rather low door and is surmounted by a notched frame with arched openings, probably used as 'appollatoi' for pigeons. At the base of the tower is a hidden underground room whose vault seems to have collapsed. What remained of the hypogeum was perhaps remodeled during the era of superior construction because there is a staircase that plunges down, ...

The church dates back to the early 17th century but retains decorative traces of a medieval chapel of the ancient settlement of Pozzomauro. The façade of the church is very simple. The interior has a Latin cross plan consisting of several altars of the 17th and 18th century A.D. In the transept are the oldest paintings of late Middle Ages like the Madonna with Child. The church and the adjacent monastery were rebuilt by the Frati Riformati on the place where a miraculous episode occurred in 1596. The road leading to the monastery is characterized by the presence of a Via Crucis in stone placed at the sides of the same street. ...

The Palazzo Paternò appears as a noble residence of a remarkable size of the XV - XVI century. In fact, the palace conceals an ancient Norman fortress, surrounded until the early 19th century by a deep moat on the east and north sides, while the rest by a swamp. The ancient castle has four towers on the corners of a rectangular central keep. In 1565 the Gonzagas began to transform the castle into a noble residence through the construction of a new building along the northwest, the opening of a north entrance and the construction of stables and lodges. In 1630 Princess Maria Cito Moles did further restructuring of the castle, refining the fortress with a wide lodge, a hanging garden full of ornamental plants, and building a chapel dedicated to the Annunciation overlooking the ...

The Castello di Acquarica del Capo is a structure of Angevin-Norman age and appears as an imposing complex of great historical-cultural importance. The oldest core, built by the Norman lords Bonsecolo, was square in shape, with each side measuring 40 meters, and consisted of a wall reinforced by four towers of which only one is retained. Remnants of this ancient building seem detectable in the remains of the facade of Via Roma. However, nothing can prove that Giovanni Antonio Orsini, owner of the castle in the fifteenth century, had completely rebuilt the defensive structure or restored that of the Norman period. The interior of the building houses, on the ground floor, some rooms formerly used as deposits, while the rooms upstairs were used for noble residence. Inside, traces of the ...

Inaugurated in 2008, the Museo del Giunco Palustre is located inside the nineteenth-century Palazzo Villani of Acquarica del Capo. The museum, established to commemorate the presence of wetlands in Salento and to value the artistic history of marsh bulrush crafts, houses numerous educational panels that recount the different phases of the craftsmanship of the bulrushes following a sophisticated practice covetously preserved by the women of Acquarica, who worked as basket-makers. Among the various processes are illustrations of the harvesting done exclusively by men, the boiling, the drying and the zolfatura, which took place in special cubicles – the “stove” rooms - where coals were burned with sulfur. The weaving of the bulrushes was the final stage of the process and was ...

Thirty meters from the farm complex of Celsorizzo is a dovecote tower in circular plan, dated 1550, as indicated on the coat of arms of the Guarini and by the inscription on the entrance door: “FABRICIUS GUARINUS / HOC FRUCTUS AUCUPANDIQUA CAUSSA / CONSTRUXIT SIBI AMICISQUE - ANNO D.NI MDL. - ", “Fabrizio Guarino had this dovecote tower built for himself and his friends for pleasure hunting. Year 1550 ". The dovecote tower is externally divided into two levels by a curb on flat surface. A string course frame surrounds the tower in half a meter from the floor of the field, at this height comes the access to the interior of the dovecote; an interior  made up of holes for the pigeons and ladders with steps protruding from the sides.   ...

Housed in the convent of Santa Maria della Pieta, the Nuovo Museo Civico di Archeologia tells the story of the town of Ugentino in different chronological phases through the archaeological contexts and finds of the latest discoveries. The exhibition is articulated into chronological phases and is divided into thematic sections. The exhibition spaces are distributed in two floors and display archaeological finds ranging from prehistory to the Middle Ages accompanied by educational panels. The dining hall, on the ground floor, houses a large model that reconstructs the ancient Ugento based on the studies conducted to date: Messapian walls, roads and cemeteries can be observed. The ground floor rooms also houses discoveries from infant burials, from members of the aristocrat ...

The Masseria Celsorizzo (also called "Gelsorizzo") is located on the outskirts of Acquarica del Capo, in an area between the aforementioned town and the provincial road to Maglie. The farm complex consists of a tall square tower with loopholes and machicolations-first core of the establishment dating back to the first half of the sixteenth century-and other rooms such as stables, barn and sheep pens, leaning against the wall, added in the nineteenth century deductible as of the date 1807 engraved on the architrave of the entrance portal. the tower of the fifteenth century is Of particular beauty and architectural interest, which houses a small chapel at its base, dedicated to St. Nicholas of Myra which measures 7.8m long and 3.7m wide, with valuable paintings of the thirteenth ...

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 specchia is a real monument that, with its length of 60 meters, it is among the most impressive prehistoric monuments of the Mediterranean. Below the usual accumulation of calcareous stones that distinguish these archaeological evidences, several tombs are preserved, with equipments which allowed the definition of their chronological context. The structural characteristics of the tombs permit to comprehend the degree of expertise and sophistication achieved by this civilization: these graves with units in lithic slabs in which the interred was placed with her trousseau ( a pottery typical of the Bronze Age, or jugs and bowls of various sizes). The size of the units and the presence of access corridors permit to define what real "burial chambers" are. An important ...

The chapel has a simple rectangular aspect, with a portal and central windows, surmounted by a belfry. Inside, what makes it valuable and perhaps unique church of Morciano is the presence of a huge monolith, an authentic menhir of local marble, painted on whose front plate is a sixteenth-century Madonna and Child. The monolith has come to light in the recent years of the twentieth century as a result of a conservative intervention carried out by the Pro Loco "Torre Vado". Below the fresco are visible traces of color dating back to the classical period of Byzantine art in Salento (900-1000 AD). Depicted in the hand of the Child are three arrows (a clear reference to the SS. Trinity) symbolizing the divine love for humanity on earth.   ...

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 ...

The Area Archeologica di Sant'Antonio is one of the four tomb complexes discovered in the territory of Ugento. It is possible to admire the necropolis of Sant'Antonio, near a stretch of Messapian city walls, located just a few steps from the Cripta del Crocefisso and a dovecote probably of medieval origin. Completely dug into bedrock outcrops, it now has 30 graves, originally covered with slabs of rocks. The internal walls have restored some traces of matching red and blue used for band decorations. Retrieved from most of the graves were equipments dating between the fourth and third centuries BC and one from the sixth century BC consisting of, among other things, local pottery production and imports from the area of Egnazia. ...

The interior of the church, of modest dimension (7 x 7 m), has a plan of a single chamber and two apses, a quite unique example in Salento. Inside, on the front wall and the apses, are gravely damaged layers of frescoes and graffiti from the Byzantine period (XI-XII sec.). In the left apse, among the oldest frescoes and Byzantine style, is a depiction of St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of the coming of the Messiah, recognizable by the inscription in Greek inserted in a cartouche "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness".  In the right, overlaid on the oldest images, are more recent  frescoes, probably dating between the sixteenth and seventeenth century: in the middle is a Christ Pantocrator, a Franciscan saint on the right and a holy bishop on the ...

The collection, stored inside Palazzo Colosso in Ugento, is a compilation begun by Baron Colosso and continued by the late Adolfo Colosso, a passionate lover of local history. The collection is housed in the former stables of the homonymous Palace, covetously guarded by his sons Luigi and Massimo. The collection features 794 finds, ranging from the 6th century B.C. up to early Medieval age, in addition to which are examples of Modern age such as armors, weapons and cannon balls. The finds dating from the 6th century BC to the Hellenistic period consist mainly of local pottery like trozzelle and plates in reddish brown varnish. Alongside the ceramics of indigenous production are those imported from Greece like lekythoi attiche. Among the coroplastica / terracotta ...

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 ...

The Museo Diocesano di Ugento  – Santa Maria di Leuca, strongly willed by Mons. Vito De Grisantis, was inaugurated on the 6th of July 2005 and is set in a building located below the Cathedral, which once served as a burial place for the clergy and for the citizens. The museum displays works from the cathedral and the churches of the diocese. The heritage of the Diocesan Museum of Ugento consists of paintings on canvas, devotional statues in papier-mâché, vestments, missals, scrolls, and antiphonaries and cartaglorie. There are also many other precious religious objects, mostly in silver, as the chalices, vessels and Eucharistic thrones. Currently, the structure is under renovation, but will be returned to the public in the short time. ...

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 mound #7, rediscovered in an area that includes at least another hundred burial mounds, between the coasts of Pescoluse and Torre Pali, is an important archaeological discovery. It looks like a pile of stones on an area of ​​200 square meters in a trapezoidal plan. On the east side is a stone cist of a rectangular form that, in the moment of discovery, showed three vessels with incineration. A thick layer of ground separated these three burials from at least 50 other entombed individuals. In the area overlooking the stone cist, burned stones were found, all referable to a small altar where fire was ignited for ritual purposes. The monument seems bordered on the south side by a sort of wall consisted of an oblique row of large boulders about 14 m long and interrupted by the road. ...

A section of Messapian walls and the remains of a necropolis from the same period were found during some excavations and preventive archeology carried out in the historic center of Ugento, near the Castello dei Principi d'Amore. Currently, these archaeological evidences are not visible because they are covered by the new roadway. ...

The Grotta Montani, located on the Spigolizzi hill, is characterized by two adjacent niches, one is completely closed by stones and the other is open through a small and low tunnel. It is a karst complex, which opens on an ancient shoreline, originally more vast and articulated than how it is presented today. It has a central room, from which four long and narrow tunnels diffuse. Found inside the cave were numerous objects, in flint and local limestone, used by the Neanderthal Man associated with the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, hyenas, and wild boars. ...

The Grotta Febbraro, identified originally as Speculizzi III, at 72 meters above sea level, is constituted by a single corridor provided with an avangrotta or a cavern, for a total length of about 15 meters, a width of 3 meters and a height of 2 meters. The actual opening is slightly interned from its original location in a paleo cliff formed during the Upper Cretaceous period about 66 million years ago. The Grotta Marzo, identified as Speculizzi IV, situated at 74 meters above sea level, presents a rather small opening, protected by abundant vegetation. Some remains were found inside it such as: post-medieval pottery, animal bones that are relatively recent, and the remains of a dry stone wall that separates the main corridor, approximately 12 meters long, from a second passage ...

Protected by the thick vegetation, along the canal of Fano on the eastern ridge, the crypt is almost invisible at a quick glance. Having small dimensions (2.70 × 3.20 m), probably intended for a small group of Byzantine monks, the place of worship entirely dug in the bedrock consists of two environments: a cell, where the participants could occupy the two seats formed along the side walls during the religious celebrations, and a separated apse from the cell by a partition stone that reaches the ceiling flanked by two windows. At the center of the first cell, a small pit perhaps contained the remains of one of these monks. Little remained of the painted decoration from which a depiction of Saint Pantaleone is recognizable.   ...

In the locality of Pescoluse - 600 meters east from the Dolmen Cosi and 40 meters south of the provincial road 91 (5 meters above sea level) – is the dolmen Argentina-Graziadei made up of an apogee cell with orthostats, irregularly shaped and of various sizes, resting on the rock outcropping and supporting a roof made of four large slabs. The entrance of the dolmen (0.6m of width and a height of0.8 meters) - facing west – permits the access to an underground structure through a short flight of three carved into the rock steps. The artificial cavity, of quadrangular form, and the whole apogee cell have the following dimensions: height and width of 1.5 m and a length of 2 meters. At the base of the small cave is an elliptical pit, hewn in bedrock (a depth of 1.15 m, ...

The coastal tower of the sixteenth century is located at the port of Torre Vado. The circular tower has two floors, with windows and loopholes in the upper part. It’s superiorly characterized by battlements that embellish the profile. It has a stairway access definitely at the rear of the tower itself. ...

The palace is located in the historic center of Salve, at the intersection of Piazza Repubblica with Via Crocifisso. The facade is characterized by a typical rusticated portal and two rounded-stone balconies resting on five large corbels, arranged on the two outermost sides of the facades, which widen toward the street almost in the shape of a semicircle. Inside, the palace is embellished with a courtyard in which the grace of baroque ornaments fits perfectly with the slender architectural lines. Two high pillars come off on the opposite side of the entrance door, enriched with ornaments and on which rest the finely embroidered arches. Swirls, plates, heads of angels and floral motifs alternate with columns engraved with the "orrisroot", especially that, along with an allegorical ...

The Montano house-tower is located within the historic center of Salve. Built in 1562 (as indicated by the date that appears on one of the towers of the building), it was a safe haven for the inhabitants. It has a square plan with guarding towers in the corners, for ambush of the sentries, with a strong projection on elegant and carved corbels, making it the most complete and beautiful towers of Salve. The tower leans against a palace with which now constitutes a unique complex; the palace dates back to the seventeenth century, as indicated by the date on one of the windows on the first floor (1617) and over the years has had different uses, including that of Police Stations.   ...

The current structure is the result of an extension of the original structure, which took place in the 50s of the last century. It retains much of the original structure, dedicated to St. Mary and dating back to the mid-sixteenth century. A.D., as much as the transept. The facade is in a hut-form, with a single entrance portal, a small rose window and a cross jutting in the axis. Inside, it is possible to admire interesting paintings from the era including the Annunciation and the Last Judgment and a fresco painted in 1586 for devotion to Alterius Stasi. ...

Consisting of a single barrel-vaulted room, the church presents entirely frescoed walls, including the vault on which center a coat of arms is painted  and is in fair condition. On the wall, surmounting the altar is a depiction of the Madonna of Constantinople, while in a lunette above the entrance, is an unusual fresco of Jesus carrying the cross in an outdated country landscape. On the walls are full length paintings of several saints including St. Nicholas, St. Rocco, St. Anthony Abate and St. Anthony of Padua. ...

The naturalistic-archaeological itinerary is a course through the towns of Ugento, Salve, Morciano di Leuca, Presicce and Acquarica del Capo. The itinerary taps on numerous types of monuments, from archaeological sites to architectural ones, from rural churches to farm complexes and to stone monuments of Salento, until reaching the famous Parco Naturale “Litorale di Ugento” characterized by dune ridges, wetlands and ponds connected with each other through canals and with the sea through three outlets. The tour stops in major museums and private collections including the Museo Archeologico di Ugento and the Collezione Colosso, which gather the evidences of ancient civilizations that have taken place in the territory of Ugento from the Prehistoric to the Middle Ages. In addition to ...