Location

Apulia (Italy), a land of a thousand faces, never the same!

A mosaic of sand and rock, mountain rich of vegetation and wheat fields, orchards and olive groves as far as the eye could see, rocky hills, calm lakes and underground cavities, marked, shaped and changed by man, who  over the centuries has made it fertile and opulent - without leaving empty spaces - a land which is likely to perennial thirst, erecting dolmens and menhirs, castles and cathedrals, abbeys and shrines, museums and palaces, villas and farms, towers and Trulli.

Today, those who choose Apulia (Italy)  will find all this and much more, because Apulia is a land of art, culture, colors, traditions and tastes for all seasons...
 

Santa Maria al Bagno - Province of Lecce

La Spiaggia e la Marina di Santa Maria al Bagno (LE)
This a typical coastal town born as a small village of fishermen, and also a shelter for ships during a storm.

In the Middle Ages it was completely abandoned and  degraded, and it was several times plundered by Saracens and pirates. The worse damage was caused  by the Venetians after the fall of Gallipoli.

To defend the people of the coast and inlands from the attaches, in 1563, Carlo V  built a program of coastal defense building a long chain of towers.

At that time was built the Torre del Fiume di Galatena, in order to defend the source of fresh water springs, an easy water supply for the pirates.



Beautiful is the spectacle offered by the tower, which has a truncated pyramid with a square base, corner bastions with a pentagonal plant and tall 16mt..

The central part of the tower collapsed not long after it was built, following an enemy attach and some telluric phenomena-

Today there are only the  4 corner bastions are still standing, and this is the reason why it is also calle Torre delle 4 Colonne, which means Tower with 4 columns.

Today the village is a  resort for the inhabitants of the nearby towns and for tourists looking for clean crystal water and rugged coastlines.





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