Giardini d'acqua Porto Cesareo
The Giardini d’Acqua project came about to provide visitors with the chance to safely explore this unusual natural landscape. which was created by millennia of sea water shaping the land above and below the ground. The goal is help visitors appreciate the sights, smells and colors as they travel along this immense, tactile playground in a manner that is respectful of the environment.
Origins of the name “le spunnulate”
These rocky depressions are locally know by the name “spunnulate.” Domenico Novembre theorizes that the term is related to “spunnulare” from the verb “spunnare,” meaning “to sink.” Instead, the linguist Luciano Graziuso proposes an alternative explanation: the local term “sponnulare” meaning “pullulare” (to germinate), referring to the presence of shrubby plants, at times growing directly from the water at the bottom of some of these karstic limestone depressions. In a third theory, “spunnulata,” is therefore equivalent to “sfondata” (broken through), referring to, however, not the bottom, but rather the vault of the karstic depression, which coincides with the level of the surface before it caved in.” (Armando Polito, Fondazione Terra d’Otranto).
Where they are located
The territory covered by the Giardini d’Acqua project extends along a tract of the Salentine-Ionian coast near the ruins of Torre Castiglione in the town of Porto Cesareo, part of the Apulia region’s Palude de Conte e Duna Costiera-Porto Cesareo, or the De Conte Wetlands and Coastal Dunes of Porto Cesareo natural reserve, where the peculiar morphology of the coast is the result of a combination of karstic and maritime factors.
In general, sinkholes are usually categorized using the principal lines of tectonic fracturing. The sinkholes of Torre Castiglione are situated in a NW-SE direction, an axis that connects the Murge plateau with the sea.
However, only two of these spunnulate are listed in the Regional Cadastre of Natural Grottoes, published by the Speleological Federation of Puglia (Giuliani, Catasto Regionale delle Grotte Naturali, 2000).
These are the two that are mentioned:
- Pu505 Grotta di Castiglione (n°90)
- Pu992 Grotta di Castiglione 1980 (n°70)
Along the same axis, there are aligned many sinkholes that have developed separately, in particular:
- The sinkhole underneath the road that connects Taranto to Porto Cesareo, made up of two sections/sinkholes that have joined together;
- A sinkhole dozens of meters to the north of the road;
- The final sinkholes of this group that end near the rocky coastline.
The evolution of the coastline on a geological timeline
Recent research, with aid from the discipline of geoarchaeology, have made it possible to estimate the average speed for the lifting of terrain, whether below or at sea level, over the last 125,000 years (Mastronuzzi & Sansò, 2002a; Scarano et al., 2008; Alfonso et al., 2012). As seen in the graphic here below, the coast of Torre Castiglione emerged with an average speed of 0.03 meters/1000 years. In 2008 all of the spunnulate between Torre Lapillo and Torre Castiglione were included in a census of such movement and subsequently analyzed to map out areas prone to collapse. Landslide susceptibility is the likelihood that a landslide might occur in a particular area, based on local conditions. It is the measure of the degree to which a territory might be affected by landslides, that is, an estimate of where such landslides might take place (IRPI). The subsequent maps produced with this data demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that wide swaths of the coastal zone under examination are subject to the development of and evolution of collapse (BRUNO et al., 2008). In terms of vulnerability, this signifies the need for further study and the creation of models capable of mitigating future risk.
What to do when visiting
the spunnulate
With one’s senses unbridled, it is a place where one can contemplate the movement of the water, the sea, and nature in motion, taking the time to interpret its sounds and the messages it sends.
