SALENTO - APULIA

MORCIANO DI LEUCA-TORRE VADO

The quiet Marina of Torre Vado offers on July and August evenings a family entertainment program; the numerous shores and shores of the coast guarantee night-time fun for young people. The town of Morciano di Leuca is located in the southern part of Cape Leuca. The village develops 130 meters above sea level on the last propaganda of the Serre Salentine, which in the municipality reach the maximum height of 165 m. S.l.m. and they take the name of Serra Falitte. The karst nature of the territory favors the creation of swallows caused by infiltrations in the subsoil of surface water. This is the case of the two verns of Barbarano, Vora Grande and Vora Piccola, with a maximum depth of 34 and 25 meters respectively. The birth of the first settlement of Morciano di Leuca dates back to the 9th century by the refugees of the nearby town of Vereto destroyed by the Saracens. With the advent of the Normans, the feud was donated in 1190 by Tancredi d’Altavilla to Sinibaldo Sambiasi whose descendants held possession until the 13th century. In the Angevin era the farmhouse passed to Riccardus Murchano to which in 1316 Guiscardo Sangiorgio took over in 1335 and sold it to Gualtieri VI in Brienne in 1335. In 1486 Giacomo Antoglietta sold it to the Sambias, to which the Capece, D’Enghien and Castromediano (1642) followed. Although the abolition of feudality had been decreed in 1806, the farmhouse was purchased in 1848 by Giuseppe Valentini. Collected at the time of the commune of Patù, it obtained administrative autonomy on 1 August 1838. In 1894 it gained the hamlet of Barbarano del Capo administered so far by the municipality of Salve. The name could probably be derived from the Latin term murex with reference to the type of rocky and hilly terrain on which the dwelling rises. Other hypotheses suggest a derivation from the Murcius person’s Latin name or the fact that in the past it was a place for storing the goods.

Religious architecture
Mother Church of St. John the Baptist Church of the Carmine Chapel of Our Lady of Constantinople Chapel of Saint Lucia Chapel of the Nativity

Civil Architectures: Hypogean crushers
There are numerous hypogean crushers spread throughout the territory of Morciano di Leuca. Only in the historic center counts eighteen and witness the significant oil economy that the country lived in the past. Some of them can be dated to the 9th century and many were obtained through the simple breaking up of the Messapian granaries. Most granaries have been destroyed so far, but some are still intact and retain the original closing slab.

Military architectures
Castle Castromediano – Valentini, wanted by Gualtieri VI of Brienne in the first half of the fourteenth century to ward off the expansionist efforts of Francesco della Ratta, Count of Caserta, who by marriage was related to the Counts Aunay of Alessano. Coastal observation towers

Events
San Giovanni Elemosiniere’s Feast: January 23 and last decade of July Carnival: February or March Sagra de li Diavulicchi: first decade of August Saint Lucia Fair: December 13 Seismic classification: zone 4 (very low seismicity), PCM Ord. 3274 of 20/03/2003 Source Wikipedia

PATU’

The gracious center is located on the territory where the important Messapic city of Vereto was located. Polo of a flourishing trade with Greece and Magna Greece, Vereto had in the harbor built in the bay of San Gregorio its natural appearance on the sea. The Saracens were in the 9th century D.C to invade and destroy it in order to provide a point of support to open the gates of all Salento. The plan, however, did not see its realization thanks to the intervention of the then King Charles II of Charles the Calvo who rejected the Saracens in a famous battle of 877. Following this event, Vereto’s inhabitants founded Patu in 924. In memory of the day of the victorious confrontation, the church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist was erected. In the following centuries, the feud has passed from the ownership of the Bishop’s Curia of Alessano, the Prince of Aragon of Cassano, the Guarino and finally the Granafei. Thanks to the illustrious past, Patù’s territory is home to several ancient religious, military and civil buildings worthy of note in spite of how much they could think of the current size of the center. In addition to the already mentioned St. John’s Church, the Mother Church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel was erected in 1564 and inside it houses a cane organ of 1723.

The church of Our Lady of Vereto is located on what was the acropolis of the homonymous Messapic city, erected in the 17th century by the Prince Zunica Lord of Alessano. An important testimony to rock architecture is the Crypt of Sant’Elia, entirely excavated, in the rock, dating back to the VIII-IX century. It was born by the Basilic monks settling in different parts of the lower Salento coming from the East following the iconoclastic struggle carried out by the Byzantine Emperor Leo III Isaurico. Throughout the territory of Patù, in the plots of its village, in the beautiful countryside, are still visible testimonies and finds of its ancient past. The Centopietre are another example. A 9th-century funerary monument consisting of one hundred blocks of limestone was built in honor of Geminiano, a messenger of peace, slaughtered by the Saracens at the dawn of the already cited clash between Christians and Islamists on June 24, 877. Set between Santa Maria di Leuca, Torre Vado and Pescoluse, Fellòniche and San Gregorio are the two marine sites of Patù. In the second one stood a tower, from which the entire name of Torre San Gregorio, which allowed to communicate with other buildings built along the coast for the sight of enemy Turkish ships. Both little known to the classic mass tourism circuits, allow a quiet stay in the corner of Paradise, where you can enjoy a coastline and a virgin countryside, tasting the local cuisine, simple and genuine with the products that sea and land They offer: homemade pasta with fish, fresh tomatoes, baked goods and fresh cheeses. Cosimo Bello