Villages and ravines around Taranto, where cinema meets rock art

The itinerary begins in the westernmost part of the Taranto hinterland, from the village of Castellaneta, famous not only for the sandy beaches that line its coastline but also for the impressive rocky inlets that surround it. The Castellaneta ravine is one of the deepest in Apulia, if not the deepest, with a vertical drop of almost 150 metres.
The old town is built along the steepest edges of this vast limestone crater, and in the Middle Ages, when the Ionian Sea was patrolled by bands of marauding criminals, the local farmers found a safe haven in the ravine’s caves, where they could defend themselves from the pirate raids.
In the streets of Castellaneta, cinema is immediately in the air. Although it has never appeared on the big screen, Castellaneta owes the success of its most illustrious citizen to the film industry. It is home to the Rodolfo Valentino Museum, dedicated to one of the Italian entertainment industry’s first sex symbols. The actor was born here in 1895, and there is a museum entirely dedicated to the personal and professional life of this silent film star.
Not far from Castellaneta, a few kilometres to the west, Laterza and Ginosa offer visitors an equally rugged and dramatic natural landscape, shaped by thousands of years of erosion of the Murge plateau.
Perched atop an immense ravine, Laterza owes its fame mainly to the production of majolica, a world-renowned example of Apulian craftsmanship. Dozens of true works of art, decorated by the skilled hands of artists from Laterza, colour the rooms of the MuMa – Museo della Maiolica di Laterza, a must-see attraction in the heart of the old town.
Just beyond Laterza, almost on the border with Basilicata, Ginosa appears in some scenes of The Gospel According to Matthew, a cinematic masterpiece by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Back in 1964, the director and leading figure in neorealism picked these ravines as the setting for the sudden earthquake that, according to tradition, struck after Jesus’ death. Since then, before each Easter in the rock village of Casale, nestled in the Ginosa ravine, the stages of the Passion of Christ are retraced with a spectacular theatrical re-enactment.

Heading from Castellaneta towards the village of Mottola, with its maze of alleys and dazzling white squares, you suddenly come across dramatic chasms carved into the rock. Hidden among the olive groves of the Murge and limestone walls covered in mastic trees are underground crypts and caves that bear witness to the daily lives of the cave dwellers. Palagianello and Petruscio are among the best-preserved rock villages in the area and feature a series of cavities carved into calcarenite, a stone that is easy to engrave. In medieval times, early Christian communities found refuge here and practised religious rites, as evidenced by all the graffiti scrawled on the rock walls. Water and grain were stored in the tuff caves, which also provided shelter for animals from enemy raids.

Another striking limestone amphitheatre surrounds the town of Mottola. We are now in the heart of the ravines of Apulia, which have been part of a large regional nature park since 2005, and there are many rock-hewn churches carved into the limestone around the town.
Mottola stands on a steep hill overlooking the waters of the Ionian Sea, and when the air is particularly clear, you can glimpse the Sila mountains of Calabria on the horizon. Taking advantage of Mottola’s strategic position on the Taranto plateau, Roman troops advanced from this rugged plateau towards Taranto. After a siege lasting about three years, in 272 BC the city, which until then had been part of Magna Graecia, was forced to accept its new rulers.
In more recent years, Mottola has showcased its impressive geological landscape on the big screen. Following the success of Gomorrah and Reality, the anthology film Tale of Tales (2015), by director Matteo Garrone, brought the fairy tales of Neapolitan author Giambattista Basile to the big screen. The caves of Casalrotto, in the Mottola countryside, are home to a frightening ogre in the tale The Flea in the Tale of Tales, offering us an imaginative interpretation of what it might be like to live within these rock walls.
 Among the natural and man-made cavities inhabited by the cave communities of Mottola, one deserves special mention. The crypt of San Nicola, also located in Casalrotto, contains an exceptionally precious cycle of wall paintings, to the extent that art historians have referred to it as the Sistine Chapel of rock art. The crypt was probably located along the main pilgrimage routes between Rome and Puglia, as evidenced by the austere (albeit beautifully coloured) images of St Peter, St Michael the Archangel and St Nicholas, venerated in Rome, Monte S. Angelo and Bari respectively.

One of the main towns in the Terra delle Gravine Regional Nature Park, Massafra is deeply linked to the rugged geological landscape of the Murge, as reflected in its name. The name of the city may well derive from the Latin “massa fracta”, meaning fractured rock, and is linked to the many rough ravines carved around the village.
One of these ravines, dedicated to St Mark, cuts cleanly through the historic centre itself, separating the Terra district, designed according to an intricate system of steep alleys, from the Santa Catarina district, built during the 19th century following an orthogonal plan. A high viaduct, known as Ponte Vecchio, joins the two districts and offers a spectacular view of the surrounding canyons.
Dozens of rock churches also dot the cavities of the ravines in Massafra, populated during the Middle Ages by communities of monks, peasants and shepherds. Some of these underground chapels contain fascinating and valuable wall paintings, such as the crypts of San Leonardo and Candelora. The artistic style is typically Byzantine, static and solemn: the quality of these wall paintings suggests that the cave-dwelling civilisation of Massafra was particularly cultured and advanced.
For his Gospel According to St. Matthew, Pasolini used Massafra as the set for the city of Capernaum, the scene of several of Jesus’ miracles. More recently, the village hosted the filming of Amiche da morire (2012), an entertaining comedy starring Claudia Gerini, Sabrina Impacciatore and Cristiana Capotondi.

This historical and cinematic itinerary ends in Crispiano, as we reach the outskirts of Taranto, about 20 km from the commercial port.
Around a hundred typical Apulian masserie (fortified farmhouses) are clustered in this municipality, built over more than four centuries, from around the 15th to the 19th century.
Crispiano’s origins are, however, much older: by the time of Magna Graecia, it already appears to have housed a large community, as evidenced by the discovery of grave goods from an ancient tomb, now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto.
Many of Crispiano’s masserie now offer accommodation for all budgets. In some cases the style is deliberately rustic, while other masserie host guests in expertly renovated spaces with modern and contemporary elements. Some of these properties are nestled in the lush landscape of the Pianelle forest, a large nature reserve and one of Italy’s largest green spaces.
The area also boasts numerous farms producing traditional products from the Apulian countryside. Oil and wine reign supreme, but you can also find dairy products, honey and a delicious variety of yellow-red tomatoes, recognised as a Slow Food presidium, which can stay fresh for months after harvesting.
This stunning setting, which blends history, nature and traditions, is dominated from above by the Cacace tower, Crispiano’s main landmark. Built at the end of the 19th century by the wealthy engineer Carlo Cacace, the tower was intended to be a funerary mausoleum, set to house members of his family. From the top of the tower, an unforgettable panorama opens out over the ravines and beyond towards the Ionian Sea – a perfect picture-postcard view to end this tourist route in the province of Taranto.