THE HISTORY OF SALENTO             [seen the gallery of Salento]
Pietro Refolo

It is possible to visit Salento through the eyes of the mythic hero Enea who spoke “Humilemque videmus Italiam” (we see the low shore of Italy). You could catch a glimpse of its modest heights that decrease softly towards a dear indigo sea, that brings life to beaches of yellow, gracious shores, high rives that breaking down weave a network of rock on the coast.
One can journey in Salento like the geographers and travellers of the 14th century did as they especially praised that “ beautiful, vague and plentiful land”. One could then spot the rough plains beaten by the wind where the cotica Corsica enables the stunted looking plants survive, stretches of centuries old olive trees with their gnarled trunks, entangled and figuratively marked by the strict layer of ungrateful rock, most hard rock; fertile cloaks of tamed soils, one over to crops, most strikingly represented by the fruitful wine yards, authentic flag of the wise and caring work of the peasant and yonder, aboriginal woods of haulm oak, eucalyptus and ageless oak trees taking turns with aromatic plants, Indian fig-trees and scented agavi.
There are no mountains. And the eyes would sweep over far horizons running into the ancient architectures of the stone here and there: dry walls are simple or complex, linear or winding or arranged in intricate patterns, assaulted by myrtle, by the branches of the haulm oak and of the thorny oak tree and turned into the dwellings of reptiles and insects, chased by the intense industrial farming; the pinion, small pyramids of stone laid closed to the gates of the crop land, that silently told to the shepherds not to use those grounds for the pasture of their herds; the farms of the various architectonic solutions, fortified together with the outhouse attached to it, noble or functional. And then the Menhir, the Dolmen and the Specchie.
The mountains are missing. And so are the rivers. That’s why the eyes would sweep over a landscape of rocky layers and calcareous banks. A miser landscape of soil and dryness, where the waters rain, where do not staunch, find a place in the bowels of the soil, creating tanks from which people have drawn water for centuries through the digging of deep wells. A landscape where the nature has been hard and where only the climate and the stubbornness of man has made it possible to produce the good products that for centuries has been made thanks to the noble soil.
But Salento is not only the land of sun and sea, of red dry soil and sirocco winds. Salento is most of all of history and a meeting point of cultures. It is a transmission of stimulus and messages, of fascination of myths and signs of ancient civilizations.
“Placed as it is, located in the Italian peninsula, closest to the Balkans, with a view of the channel through which the Ionic sea insinuates to create the long and narrow Adriatic sea, the spur of Italy, stretched out towards the seas of Levante and towards the Suez channel”, a mixture of races and tribes, of traditions and cultures, of beliefs and religions. And how could not one find the signs of this crucible in the popular rite of tarantismo, that since as far as the Middle ages has egged women bitten by the tarantula to go on pilgrimage on 29th June to the well of the small church of San Paolo in Galatina, where the wild dance to the sound of pizzica tarantata, and the coloured ribbons tied around the wrist, eliminate the deadly languor.
Or in the sword dance, that original folk dance which one can admire from the sunset of the 15th of August to the dawn of the 16th in front of the sanctuary of san Rocco in Torrepaduli, a part of Ruffano.
Or in the pizzica di core, the type of pizzica tarantata which represents the feeling of love, eroticism and passion in the courting rite between a man and a woman: a woman begins to dance to the frantic rhythm of tambourines and violins, waving a red scarf, the colour of love, with which she then invites to dance a man pointed out by the whim. Bored with the companion, she invites another and another one and once again to her pleasure, giving the scarf only to the man able to steal her heart, falling in with every desire and fantasy of hers.
Or in the Grecìa salentina, that singular territory where the griko is still alive, similar to modern Greek and where you could still witness, to just a couple of years ago, the religious catholic functions of the Greek rite.
History and culture, but also delightful art: Salento is an enchanting shrine of artistic and architectonic beauty. It is a land incredibly rich of testimonies which ranges from the Palaeolithic settlements to the signs of the Greek colonization, from the signs of the Roman rule to the Byzantine settlement, from the signs of feudality to the Norman territorial organization, from the signs of economic Spring of the renaissance era to the splendour of the baroque religiousness, from refined Rococo to the precocity of the Liberty style.
Lecce particularly offers an unforgettable picture, the historic centre retains numerous wonders: from the famous basilica di Santa Croce, where the Baroque of Lecce comes to its full expression, passing through piazza Sant’Oronzo with the statue of the homonymous Santo Prottetore to the roman amphitheatre, that testifies the vitality of the Antica Lupiae. And then Piazza Duomo, correctly considered one of the most beautiful of Italy, in which the baroque exuberance links to the warm luminosity of the Lecce stone which in starry summer evenings, assumes a magic atmosphere. Not to forget the splendid coast towns. Otranto, for example, an Adriatic pearl with a coast touched by most pure waters, an enchanting castle and a cathedral among the largest of Salento, enriched by a mosaic floor from the 12th century. The Ionic beauty Gallipoli, also protected by a castle and rich of churches and chapels that makes the historical centre highly picturesque. And then Ugento, a paradise for seaside tourism, antique Mess apian centre, Roman municipium, victim of Saracens and the Turks with its castle, cathedral, Mess apian walls, museum of archaeology that preserves the famous “Zeus of Ugento”, considered one of the masterpieces of the Magna Grecian bronze period.
And at last, the delights of the inland parts: among which Galatina, a dynamic centre that conserves the main Apulia late gothic pictorial in the church Santa Caterina, dating back to the 1420, with the history of Christ, of the virgin and of the homonymous saint; between Lecce and Santa Maria di Leuca, there are testimonies of the antique Mess apian, the people of the two seas, kings of these lands before the Roman conquer: the awesome Megalithic walls at Nardò, Cavallino and especially Muro Leccese. Salento is thus a continuous circle of nature, culture, history and art. It is a wise mixture of communal identities linked to the landscapes of struggle and labour. It is the incredible land of pink dawns and yellow sunsets, of hot sun and blue sea, of architectural and landscape wonders, of history and traditions, of hospitality and warm-heartedness, of intense scents and flavours, that make you dream.