sabato 14 dicembre 2013

The Salento, Apulia

Salento is a strip of land between two seas , the Ionian Sea to the west and south Adriatic coast with the high cliffs , beautiful fjords , hidden coves , reefs teeming with fish and low , long and endless beaches and a limpid and transparent.

The so-called Terra d'Otranto is an ancient land, are testimony to the graffiti and paintings made ​​with bat guano and with ocher , symbols of initiation into a mystery religion tied to the dark, hidden caves in the area. Discoveries have been made in the caves of Zinzulusa , Romanelli , Horse , Santa Cesarea Terme and Porto Badisco . In particular, the Deer Cave , karstic , had been the refuge of prehistoric man in Salento during the Neolithic period .

The extreme south of the peninsula of Puglia, is a kind of peninsula on the peninsula. The land of Salento is like a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea , not homogeneous from the point of view of anthropology, linguistically a little ' Greek and a little ' Latin . Dotted with small towns underdeveloped orbiting relatively large number of towns like Nardo, Otranto , Gallipoli and Galashiels. In the past, the coast was always threatened by the landing of Arabs and pirates, the purpose of which was to loot and destroy ; until our days in which landings of illegal immigrants from North Africa and eastern Europe are of a different nature but humanly just as serious . Heart and aristocratic button is Lecce , a reality created by the educated ruling class became rich with the earth.

The history of Salento has always been strongly linked to the East , the Salento area is the eastern most of Italy , the beacon of Palacia , Otranto is more to the east than it is in Warsaw, Poland. Legend has it that the Cretans were found in Lecce.

The territory of the province of Lecce is littered with Dolmen and Menhir Menanthol , these megalithic constructions of Indo-European origin during the Bronze Age the Salento peninsula was in fact inhabited by Indo-European peoples have come down to south through the Alps and continuing along the Adriatic coast. The fifth century BC dates back to the arrival of Messapians that probably came from the Dalmatian coast , they had a very high degree of civilization , and integrated themselves with the people of Greek origin assimilating part of their culture , while remaining independent in their city-state ready to federate against common enemies . Messapians was that of a people devoted to agriculture , horse breeding and craft of ceramics. They gave an impetus to the construction of the city with imposing city walls . Previously the Greeks in the seventh century . BC, had founded the city fortresses such as Otranto , Taranto and Gallipoli.

With regard to the presence of the Greeks in Salento must count the presence , today, of a linguistic island known as Salento Greece . Ellenofona This area is located in the province of Lecce , in the heart of Salento, south east of the Salento peninsula , is one of the recognized minorities which consists of our nation. Has very ancient origins , some places the origins of the grica in the Byzantine period , but those who anticipates the birth period Magna Graecia . The ethnic and linguistic minority of Greek Salento now includes nine municipalities : Calimera , Castrignano dei Greci , Corigliano d' Otranto, Martano Martignano Melpignano , Soleto , Sternatia and Zollino .

After the war, Taranto, Salento became a Roman province from the administrative point of view , but not cultural . For the Salento the period prior to the Roman conquest had been very prosperous and rich with a civilization superior to any other Italic people of that time. The Romans themselves , conquering Salento , discovered the taste of art that manifested itself through poetry (one of the greatest writers and poets of Rome was born in Quinto Ennio Messapica Rudiae , on the outskirts of the city of Lecce which remain today the archaeological remains Virgil instead lived and died at Brindisi ) , sculpture , painting : the ' barbarians ' Romans had already conquered a land so rich in culture, art and history.
After the fall of the Roman Empire , the Salento subjected to the domination of the Byzantines and Normans

, Frederick II , brought the region to be again the center of the world.

With the Swabians began a long period of decline that continued with the Angevins, the Aragonese and the Spanish viceregal government that brought new sacrifices in this land border. The peninsula was punctuated by a long series of looting and destruction coming mostly from the sea as evidenced by the dreadful martyrdom in the city of Otranto at the hands of Achmet Pasha. The sack of Otranto is one of his most serious in the history of Salento. Citizenship Otrantian tried to resist the Turks and agreed to renounce in favor of Islam, why the Turkish leader beheaded eight hundred martyrs whose remains are still visible in the Cathedral of the coastal town .

Italy-Apulia
Salento-Apulia
It was from that moment on, it was 1500, Charles V and the Spaniards erected a system of watchtowers along the coast. During the same period Lecce became one of the most beautiful and important of the period , the heart of cultural and artistic activities , began to attract nobles and scholars , had a pulse current artistic baroque architecture of which still can be seen in Lecce and the rest of Salento . After the sad events of World War II economic recovery begins slowly thanks to the fortitude of the people who in recent years have even given hospitality to the Balkan peoples fleeing proving worthy , as some have proposed , the Nobel Prize for Peace .

The Taranta

The Tarantula or taranta is a poisonous spider whose bite is taken from the term "pizzica".
The poison came into circulation causes were strong psychomotor agitation followed by violent headaches and muscle stiffness that gives life to epileptic seizures. In the case of tarantism however, the tarantata has not been bitten by any animal. In these cases the phenomenon of tarantism should be interpreted as a symbol of frustration, mental, economic, social and sexual, that is, as the hysterics of the individual.

Taranta's Ritual
Not by chance to be "plucked" were women, marginalized among the marginalized, that during ecstasy or agony of the poison, could afford to everything, even to mimic embraces in public, until St. Paul, the patron of tarantate, did not grant a pardon.

The spider is the symbol of Mother Earth that emerges with his instincts relentless, with the power of ancient pagan rituals that Christianity has sought to mitigate them back to reason, in the bosom of Holy Mother Church.

Originally the ground and then there are the tarantula, the tambourine and its primeval music and a repertoire of ancestral memories that each of us carries inside and resurface periodically. Tarantism Pugliese was born in the Middle Ages and remained intensely popular participation and variety of mythical ritual until the end of '700 beginning its decline in the next century.

The scenario in which the ritual of dance took place during the celebrations of St. Peter and Paul, was a large sheet lying on a blanket that covered the floor, and on the sheet, in a corner, a collection basket for offerings and images of the Saints.

The instrument used to accompany the ritual of dance is the tambourine Lecce which is played with a special technique, giving the basic rhythm with the percussion, and an ordered chaos, with rattles. Around the sheet is formed, the "patrol" (circle) in the middle of which, with a very basic technique you can dance the dance of "pizzica".


Produced by the Agency for the Promotion Apulia Region - Tourism Department, Culture and Tourism


Written and directed by ANTONIO PALUMBO executive producing OZ SOFIA FILM mounting FRANCESCA ALLEGRA cinematographer color grading SILVAGNI LUCA ANDREA FERRANTE organizer FRANCISCO LOPEZ production manager ROSEMARY Chimirri music MAURO IN / CANZONIERE GRECANICO SALENTINO casting VICTORY Lopresti
with OLGA GUSEVA JOSEPH WOMEN ROBERTA ELIA

APULIA AND SALENTO'S ARCHEOLOGY

Archaeological research aimed at the reconstruction of the landscape of Puglia and Salento has had over the last fifteen years, a strong impetus to the studies conducted in the field. In fact, through the study of the sources, excavations and surveys in the area it was possible to identify a considerable number of archaeological sites that span a very wide span , starting from prehistoric times , comes down to the final stages of the Late Middle Ages and beyond.

Findings in sea-University of Salento
The region actually has a long history , and archeology has allowed us to give valuable evidence in the light of life and artistic expression among the oldest and most important of all the Italian soil , such as graffiti and cave Zinzulusa Romanelli , dating 12,000 years ago, and the multitude of dolmens , menhirs and specchie that bring the local prehistoric cultures to those of Western Europe.

Of particular interest are the excavations conducted in Salento ( Horse , Large , Muro Leccese , etc. . ) To shed light on the enigmatic people of the Messapians , also known by the names of Calabri , Salento and Iapigi , and a history in which there is still a halo of poor . And it is still the Salento to document the most ancient contacts between the Italian peninsula and the East as evidenced by the graves of Cellino S. Mark ( dating from the early second millennium BC. ) And the underground crypts , taste and Byzantine rite and still decorated with wonderful frescoes . The passage of the Roman Empire came to light the impressive amphitheater that occupies much of the central Piazza S. Oronzo in Lecce (the ancient Lupiae ) , the Roman theater and some well preserved old Trajan way that connected with Lupiae Brundisium (Brindisi ) . In Taranto , are preserved the important finds from the ancient Greek civilization in Puglia.

Largest and most important fact is the core of pottery, mainly from the excavations of the necropolis of Taranto , which boasts vases, goblets , vases and ceramics in the unmistakable style of gnathia ( black paint with clear colors and shapes of different gradation from red to yellow ) , ending in Arezzo pottery red coral from the Roman period . Another section provides the opportunity to admire the precious gold of Peucezia , from Ruvo di Puglia , in the sixth century. Taranto and products of the fourth century (earrings , rings, a singular nucifrangibulum , ie a nutcracker bronze , consisting of two hands furniture) from excavations of the necropolis rich towns .

At the museum belong to the spread of Montegranaro marble kore , the Zeus bronze Ugento , head of Apollo limestone and another head , probably Hera , marble and limestone. The bloody history of Puglia and the multitude of people who over the centuries have taken place in the area are witness in two other important archaeological sites : Egnathia ( messapico center in origin , then the Byzantine Empire , and finally important Roman port located between Bari and Brindisi ) and the battle of Cannae , site of the legendary battle between Hannibal and the Romans . Other notable sites gave new light to settlements of medieval origin. It is in the majority of rural settlements for which written sources available, particularly for the Byzantine period and the subsequent Norman-Swabian period , are extremely have information .

The houses found they provided accurate directions to the difficult working conditions in the fields, on the costume and the daily habits of the time. Catch our eye in particular his studies in Martano Povincia of Lecce in the hamlet of Apigliano , an ancient village , similar to the structures and spaces chorion Byzantine important precisely because it is open and not in possession of any defensive measure, as was the Kastéllion .

Morphology Salento and Puglia

Visit Puglia

Growing in length to 400 km. the Apulian territory has very different characteristics that make it among the most fascinating in Italy in terms of scenic beauty and one of the most interesting from a historical point of view and natural beauty. The windswept plains uncultivated follow the geometry of the infinite expanses of olive trees as well as fertile cropland, barely recovered from generations of farmers. Along the coast the landscape changes further alternating long beaches of fine sand with high cliffs interspersed with small bays and coves, along which there are numerous caves and crevices due to the particular nature of the subsurface karst of Apulia

The incessant action of water on limestone, the main component of the ground, gave life since prehistoric times to the deep cuts in the bedrock over time become ravines, greenhouses and fossil beds of ancient rivers, today the perfect habitat for thousands of plant species are endemic. Deep chasms, called precisely favor, disposing of rainwater still encouraging, even here, very special types of flowering. It is a territory that alternates in fact the characteristic vegetation of the Mediterranean maquis this particularly in Salento woods of various kinds and nature in the area of Gargano with the example of the lush forest Umbra. These alternate with water, and also to form a very different nature. Channels and basins result of repairs to resist the delicate man-made lake systems of Lesina and Varano, Gargano, lakes Alimini in the territory of Otranto and the natural oasis of Gesine also in the province of Lecce.

One region, Apulia, only apparently poor water, really rich groundwater where literally rests. It is ultimately a territory claimed by man so much in terms of hard work and sweat, but he returned there where this has been respectful towards him, unrivaled masterpieces of architecture as rural terraces overlooking the sea, the trulli Bari and pajare salting, dry-stone walls, up to date back to ancient prehistoric settlements rich in inscriptions and artifacts.