TOUR ITINERARIES
Discoveryng The Castles Of Puglia
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TARANTO

Our new itinerary discoverying the castles of Puglia starts from Taranto, a peculiar chief city of the province and beautiful town of Puglia, that overlooks the Ionic sea.

Taranto lays over the inner point of a gulf that has its name. On one hand it lays over a little island (the old town centre) and on the other one over the land. On its southern side there is the Mar Grande and on the northern one the Mar Piccolo, that communicate through two channels: “Porta Napoli Bridge” and the famous “Ponte Girevole” (Turning bridge) (on the south). The word Taranto has an illiric root, “tara” or “taras”, which means water or sea. Taras was also the name that Messapic people gave to a little river.

According to some local historians, this city was founded by some people coming from Sparta, even though the place was already inhabited. Someone asserts that the Japigian population lived there, while someone else asserts it was the Messapic one. The most peculiar area of Taranto is definitely the old towm centre. Around it you can see some stately buildings of great historic and architectural importance: Galeota Palace, Amati Palace and Carducci Artenisio Palace.

The most characteristic monument in town, however, is the “Turning Bridge”, built at the end of the XIX century and the Aragonese Castle. This is a powerful construction built between 1481 and 1492, over a previous Byzantine fortification built to defend the city by enemies coming from the sea (the Saracens). It was built for the will of Duke Alfonso d’Aragona, and the project was made by the architects Ciro Ciri and Francesco di Giorgio Martini. It has a squared plan on whose corners there are four towers. Later, another one was built, not so far from the castle, S.Angelo tower.So the castle turned its plan into a trapezoidal one, and on the towers parapets they put some slits called “petrere” of “gettarole of fire”, from which they poured burning liquids to keep the enemies away.The castle, that allowed to accomplish the Navigable Channel, and so the connection between Mar Grande and Mar Piccolo, was revised many times (until the foundation of the Reign of Italy) and then it was turned into a prison. Since 1887 it is the seat of the Navy.
S.Leonardo chapel is an ancient remain from a Byzantine construction and it is inside the castle. In ancient times it was consecrated to Santa Maria. After the marriage between Ladislao of Durazzo and Maria D’Enghien, the chapel was consecrated to S.Leonardo and then revised and adapted to different purposes.

PULSANO

Our itinerary takes us to Pulsano, another town in the province of Taranto, whose territory includes Marina di Pulsano, a place by the sea rich in inlets with rocks and shores. The name of the town was object of study for the local historians: some of them assert that its origin lays in the Latin name fulix, folaga.

Actually, the site on which the town is, in ancient times was a fen.By the name fulix they derived the name fulcianus, that denoted the coot site. Because of a dialect influence, the letter f of fulcianus was turned into a p and it became Pulcianus, and then Pulsanus.The visit of the town starts from the castle, in the centre of it. It was built in 1430 for the will of De Falconibus. In the same site the had previously been an observation tower, or a defence one. The building has a rectangular plan while the complex has five towers: three of them are squared and two are circular, but they are all linked by a curtain in the middle of which there is a yard about 100 mq wide. In the castle there are three floors: on the ground floor there are five big rooms and some small ones, on the first floor there are eight rooms and some smaller ones and on the second floor there are the towers rooms and the terraces.The most ancient areas of the castle outside were built carparo covering, and inside with stones, earth and lime. The areas built in recent times, instead, are made of squared carparo blocks.There are not so many ornaments left, besides a bas-relief over carparo stone with the coat of arms of De Falconibus and Muscettola families. The outside battlement and the peculiar shape of the towers give the castle a Reinassance fortress appearance.

Texts: Italiainrete - Pictures: Database and web

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