THE LAND OF THE RAVINES
“A bridge towards east”. That’s how has been always called the Apulia. It has been already a bridge for the Romans who went on board here to reach Greece. It has been a bridge for the Byzantines that through Apulia controlled all the south of Italy. It has been a bridge for the crusaders who were leaving from the Apulia ports towards the expeditions in the Holy Land. Today it continues to be a region of contact with the balkanic east and the Mediterranean.
The western part of the province of Taranto is deeply characterized in its landscape by the karst phenomenon of the ravines. The ravines are deep gorges excavated during millenniums by the erosive action of the meteoric waters on the soluble calcareous rock; a phenomenon that’s also common to the whole Mediterranean basin.
The most relevant expressions, either for the geological importance either for the forms of anthropologization, are concentrated in a territory that follows the western profile of the taranto’s province and includes towns like Ginosa ,Laterza, Castellaneta, Palagianello, Mottola, Massafra , Grottaglie e Statte . The ravine’s district has been declared by the EU as a SIC (site of communitary interest) and starting from December 2005,the Apulia region has founded the regional park of the ravines to better enhance the value of this historical and environmental wealth.
The awareness of the identity and oneness of the own territory is very strong in the local populations that have adapted and tamed , in different historical periods, this wild nature to their needs of survival.
The anthropolization of the rocks is very early . The first evidences of living in the rocks goes back to the medium Palaeolithic period (50000 B.C) with several troglodytic villages that have been found.
But the real territory’s wealth is the continuous commitment in the research and study of the rupestrian habitat lavished by groups of researchers and associations of voluntary service. This effort is expressed in a series of scientific publications and in several interventions of preservation, restauration and spreading of the important heritage of the ravines.
The soft tufa has made the work of transformation and use of the natural environment easier. In fact, the karst caves have become, since the beginning, a place to shelter for the man and their animals. One of the most significant examples is the so called “architecture in negative”. Real houses with windows, fireplaces, benches, beds have been created through the art of taking away.
Moreover there are several economic and productive activities that have followed the human settling. One above all is the sheep farming activity, which has created the so called “Jazzi” which are real sheepfolds excavated in the tufa and have also the cribs and drinking-trough.
Sheeps/ovines and goats were the most breeded animals. The several rock beehives that have been found show that also the bees were breeded, as were breeded the pigeons and the chickens with the caves that were transformed into real dove-cotes.
The so called herbalist’s shop of the “Mago Greguro”, a dove-cote cave, is a significant example of how the local population links their imaginary to the dark hovel of the caves. Not only the breeding but also agriculture was an important part of the calcareous rocks. Typical are, for example, the terraces used as kitchen gardens and vineyards, which are enclosed by characteristic dry stone walls.
The olive cultivation is certainly the cultivaton that has determined the economic support of the whole territory’s population. The remains of olive presses of the roman period are wery wide spread. The real tourist attraction are XVIII century hypogeum olive presses that still preserve a wealth of wooden presses, millstones and tanks excellently preserved.
The ravine has provided also the building material used by the man in different epochs for settling on its sides. Houses, churches, castles, bridges; all has been built with the tufa excavated from the caves which are all around the territory. Caves that have moulded through time the same landscape creating a visus that is similar to other Mediterranean territories as Turkey or Tunisia and France.
An intense phenomenon of monasticism was developed by the harshness of the gorges and peaks, proposing again similar experiences developed in Cappadocia, Serbia, in the greek Peloponnese and in the Salonika’s meteors. The isolated caves have contained at first, Latin monks, and ,in the period of Iconoclasm (VII century) Byzantine monks who were prosecuted in their country. The remains of this monastic colonization have an enormous artistic value like magnificent examples of churches excavated in the limestone that reveals masterpieces of mural painting and high medieval frescoes. Continuous studies and researches have allowed to examine carefully this important artistic experience.
One site to recommend are the rupestrian churches of Mottola, recently restored and in particular the saint Nicholas church, rebaptized the Sistine chapel of the rupestrian churches .
More recent are the new experimental ways of re-utilization of the historical cave –houses with economical-touristic aims,developed,mostly under the impulse of communitary fund. The municipality of Palagianello is creating for example, little accommodations for tourists in the caves.