Park "Otranto Coast - Santa Maria di Leuca"

The Puglia Territory of the Park “Otranto Coast - Santa Maria di Leuca and Tricase Wood” comprises the Municipalities located along the eastern coast of Salento between Santa Maria di Leuca and Otranto. The park also comprises the area of Punta Palascìa lighthouse (the most eastern point of Italy) and Tricase Wood. The Coastal Towers projecting on the Adriatic Sea, situated along the seafront from Otranto to Santa Maria di Leuca, surround the park. Farms, dry stone walls and ancient rural buildings, such as “Masseria” typical of Puglia and Salento territory, are spread throughout the park inland. The Park “Otranto Coast - Santa Maria di Leuca and Tricase Wood” is one of the protected areas of the Puglia Region and Salento; the other three are: Alimini Lakes, Le Cesine, Porto Selvaggio, Island of Sant'Andrea.
The protected Salento area of the Park “Otranto Coast - Santa Maria di Leuca and Tricase Wood” was created by Puglia Region in 2006 with the aim of recovering the animal and vegetal species and protecting the historical-architectural values and heritage, paying special attention to the existing rural architecture: trulli, pajare, làmie, dry stone walls and “Masserie”. This area of Apulia (Puglia Region) has a high landscape value thanks to the presence of Cretaceous limestone rocky cliffs overhanging the sea. It is a territory particularly exposed on the south-east to the sirocco wind, a very humid wind which leads to hot-humid micro-climate conditions. The area is an extraordinary phyto-geographical site thanks to the presence of Trans-Adriatic species: Cornflower of Leuca, Alyssum of Leuca, Puglia Bell-Flower, Ephedra and Giacobini Vetch. The Fauna of the Park is rich in various nesting species: Tawny Pipit, Short-Toed Lark, Calandra Lark, Peregrine Falcon and Eleonora’s Falcon. This area was also the last throughout the region where the rarest mammal in Europe, the Monk Seal, was seen. Here there are several caves where important fossils or signs of the presence of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic man were found, such as in Cervi, Romanelli and the Zinzulusa Caves. In the area of the Park “Otranto Coast -Santa Maria di Leuca and Tricase Wood” tourist facilities are almost never very large (boarding houses or hotels). As in most of Puglia and Salento territory family-managed farm houses, Masserie and B&B’s, which are mainly farms and country houses, are the most common tourist facilities.
The regional Nature Park “Otranto Coast - Santa Maria di Leuca and Tricase Wood” is a park created with Regional Law n. 30 of Puglia Region dated 26/10/2006.