San Vito dei Normanni - Salento

San Vito dei Normanni (BR)

Salento - Apulia (Italy)

City of musicians, poets and philosophers.
Surrounded by a vast plain, green fields and olive groves is expressed in many different shades that have as background the blue Adriatic, San Vito dei Normanni is the city that gave birth to two exceptional artists: Leonardo Leo (1694-1744), composer and creative extraordinary quantity and beauty of the works, and Lanza del Vasto (1901-1981), philosopher, essayist, poet, writer and follower of Gandhi's doctrine of nonviolence.
The first unit of housing, which branches off the narrow streets of old town, the so-called Stratoddi arose near the square tower, built by the Norman Bohemond of Hauteville.
In founding the city, however, were the Schiavoni, people of Slavic origin, the late tenth century, he settled in the territory of Castri Sancti Viti to escape persecution by the Saracens.
The territory of San Vito, in fact, has been inhabited since very ancient times, as evidenced by the remains found at Castello d'Alceste and dating from the fifth-sixth century. BC
The heart of the city is overlooking the square where the Town Hall, the Clock Palace and the magnificent Castle Dentice of Frasso snapper, which is accessed by a grand stone staircase.
Among the various goods of artistic interest, are proudly displayed the many churches, including San Giovanni for the magnificent Baroque facade, Santa Maria della Pietà, unique to the square with the top outside edges, and Santa Maria della Vittoria, an architectural jewel at the end of '500 inside which you can admire numerous paintings like the Virgin Birth of Brother Giacomo da San Vito, an eighteenth-century organ case and a wooden half of 600.
The Pearl of San Vito is certainly the Crypt of San Biagio in the south only for the wonderful cycle of paintings dated October 8, 1196.
On either side of the crypt are two other caves dug in a large, circular, probably the monastery.
The rock settlement is also the place where there are different events, notably at Christmas when they represented the Nativity and the Descent of the Magi.