Giardini d'acqua Porto Cesareo
"Memory is a truly strange tool, one that can bring things back, like the sea that returns scraps of a shipwreck, even after many years."
Primo Levi
Like grains of sand falling in an hourglass that mark the passing of time but do not disappear, so, too, the past reveals itself here in layers, in this strip of land eaten away by the sea. It is here between the ruins of ancient watchtowers, massive boulders launched by tsunamis from the sea in the distant past, and traces of long lost villages. Reading these clues left by history, the path to our current moment is that much clearer.
A Prehistoric Village
In 1978 the archaeologist Salvatore Bianco began research in the area near Torre Castiglione, bringing to light stone utensils that can be dated to the late Bronze Age, revealing the existence in situ of a prehistoric village. Unfortunately, the construction of the tower itself disturbed nearly all of the archaeological evidence, which was already deteriorated considerably by erosion from sea water. The presence of some ceramic artifacts from medieval times and later periods confirmed that the site had been frequented by man in a more or less constant manner over the centuries.
“The fact that prehistoric materials can be linked to an actual village is proven by the presence of plaster fragments from huts, in part bearing the imprint of the wooden frame of the hut itself. In addition, there are three bowl fragments in quartzite and a limestone flour mill of a large size with an irregular oval margin; this bears witness to the developments reached in agriculture during the Late Bronze Age.” (S. Bianco, Torre Castiglione: insediamento proto-villanoviano. Ricerche e studi, Brindisi. 1978).
The huts had a single room, either circular, oval or rectangular in form. The walls, made up of plant-based elements held together by a series of wooden blades, were covered on the inside and outside with a thick “plaster” made from pressed clay. The pavement was in beaten clay, while the studded walls supported the roof that was made of beams covered in plant material. The outside door was reinforced by two poles placed in an X, creating a small portico.
Torre Castiglione
The construction of watchtowers along the coast of Apulia, from the Byzantine era until the reign of the Normans, came about to defend the coastline and the hinterland from Saracen invasions. Torre Castiglione is part of a system of coastal watchtowers financed by the Spanish Viceroys of Naples, meant to protect the Terra d’Otranto (Otranto territory).
The construction of the tower named the Ponte de Castiglione, dates back to 1568. The contract for the construction was assigned to Virgilio Pugliese, a master builder from nearby Nardò, who was tasked to follow the design of the engineer Giovanni Tommaso Scala and complete it within nine months time. Following the death of Pugliese, the work was completed by another builder from Nardò, Leonardo Spalletta. Recorded as being in a good state in 1825 by Primaldo Coco, the tower was still in use by the Guardia Doganale (customs guard) in 1842. In 1972 it was listed as a ruin, and its collapse was likely caused by a cave-in of karstic origin. Today, in the pile of rubble that remains there are still at least a dozen square meters of original pavement and traces of what was likely a well.
Detail sheets
Maciniello and the Cavallari
Nearly 900 meters east of the ruins of Torre Castiglione there is a building called the “Maciniello,” currently under restoration in the project to valorize the spunnulate. Built using a rubble stone filling technique, it appears to have a roof structure with a barrel vault and an arched entryway on the northern side, which faces the sea. On the eastern side the building extends into a dry stone wall in the surrounding field. From the point of view of topography, the building is equidistant from the two nearest towers, which is the precise reason that they are referred to as torri speculari, or mirror towers. It is also located just a few dozen meters from the rocky coast. It is known locally as Macinieddru or “lu puestu” (headquarters). The latter is probably related to the names given to the small homes of cavallari along the Calabrian coast such as: Posto di Capo Bruzzano, Posto di Guardia di Pigliàno, Posto i Palazzi, among others.
