Salentine Greece is a geographical air-pocket which speculates on the Greek colonisation and the progressive Hellenisation of Southern Italy, it now includes the districts of Calimera, Castrignano dei Greci, Corigliano d’Otranto, Martano, Martignano, Melpignano, Soleto, Sternatia and Zollino, in the heart of the east Salento region, where traces of the Greek-Byzantine civilisation linger on and Griko, the idiom or dialect which is surprisingly close to modern Greek, still survives. The Greek enclave can be easily reached by car from Lecce, Otranto, Gallipoli and Santa Maria di Leuca.
«We are Greeks, and this ensures our glory», wrote Galateo, and he is right. Not only in the legends which portray nearly all these villages as miraculously escaping from the hurricanes and typhoons, usually owing to the intercession of Eastern saints, Salentine Greece is still rich in amazing historical and artistic remains, which range from menhirs, dolmen and specchie or mounds/cairns (the famous Specchia dei Mori, in Martano) to «pietra forata» or «fertility stone» in Calimera, in San Vito church, which in terms of the symbolism of purification and rebirth recalls analogous propitiatory rites of neighbouring Greece; from the stately beautiful icons in Baseline coenobies to the crypts (San Biagio’s crypt in Calimera is in the homonymous natural-archaeological park; that of Sant’Onofrio in Castrignano dei Greci dates back to the 6th century, while San Sebastian crypt in Sternatia dates back to 1100), to monastic centres, to castles (in particular Corigliano d’Otranto’s castle, from the 15th century, and the Granafei fort in Sternatia), to churches (the Baroque Agostinian convent complex in Melpignano, Sternatia’s bell tower and Soleto’s Gothic spire; also the frescoes in Soleto, in the 4th century church Santo Stefano, and the parish dedicated to Assunta, in Martano are among the most impressive), to the noble houses in Martano, Corigliano d’Otranto, Calimera and Martignano, and up to the typical «pozzelle» in Castrignano dei Greci, di Soleto and di Zollino, old underground engineering for rain water conservation.
If there is one thing which these villages have in common it is the survival or memory of Greek rites, which were widespread here until the 17th century, and of the Greek gloss, roots of which are buried in local toponymy and in the originality of the architecture (the communal courtyards painted in blinding white, the balconies, the rhombus shaped decorations), of the habits and customs which make this area the only one in the world and as such worthy of attention in terms of cultural tourism.