Peschici
Info Peschici
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Apulia
Foggia
Peschici
71010
0884
49,39 Kmq
4.242
Piazza S. Perini 1
Peschici, a characteristic old town centre on a promontory
Peschici was founded around the year one thousand, when Dalmatians and Schiavoni settled here to stem Saracen raids. It shows a characteristic old town centre, on a 90 metres high promontory falling sheer to the sea (indeed the name of the town means “cliff that falls sheer to the sea”); it is possible to admire the white single-storey houses and the dome-shaped roofs following the Arabian style. Between the old and the new town we find the Norman castle, built in the 13th century, which belonged to the Tremiti abbey; today it houses temporary exhibitions and a collection of instruments of torture used during the Middle Ages.
The Mother church, dedicated to sant’Elia, dates back to 1597; it houses the icon of the prophet Elia that, according to the tradition, intervened to free the city from an invasion of grasshoppers. Next to the town stands the ancient church of Santa Maria di Calena, with the monumental oak tree. Towards Vieste, we can admire inlets and little promontories: it is one of the most beautiful naturalistic views of the Gargano, with the bays of San Nicola, Manaccora and Calalunga, spangled by towers.
An unusual but typical element of these areas, is the presence of the so called Trabucchi, complicated wooden structures anchored to the cliff, which were used to let down fishing nets and capture passing fishes, thanks to a complex mechanism of winches and ropes, by means of branches. For centuries, this has been the only fishing method employed by the local population.
