In the early fifteenth century Tricase was only a fortified enclosure: there was a big tower, a courtyard, a moat and, inside the courtyard, only few houses. The village was founded when the inhabitants of three hamlets running away from the Turks took refuge there. In 1588 the feud of Tricase was purchased by Gallone princes, an aristocratic family probably coming from the Land of Otranto. The princes settled in that village, making it a principality.
The majestic Castle-Palace of princes Gallone, now base of Tricase Town Hall and of the Local Action Group (Gruppo di Azione Locale - G.A.L.) “Capo Santa Maria di Leuca”, gives shape to Piazza Pisanelli, called the “the Meeting point of Tricase”. In front of the castle, we find a series of lovely houses and a small wine house (Castel di Salve); on one side we can admire the seventeenth-century San Domenico Church, built in 1688 in baroque style, and on the other the unfinished bell-tower of the matrix church dating back to the eighteenth century. The façade of Church of Natività e della beata Vergine (matrix church), baroque as well, overlooks another square, which is smaller and with a pentagon shape. A big arch connects the church with the castle and links the two squares. The historical centre of Tricase comprises the ancient houses between “zona puzzu”, Piazzetta Dell’Abate, Piazza Don Tonino Bello and Piazza Vittorio Emanuele (Piazza Pisanelli). Leaving the village centre and taking the ancient road leading from Tricase to Andrano we cross the Masseria Torre del Mito (“Masseria De Amito”, “Masseria de lo Mito” or “Masseria of San Tommaso del Mito”). Near this tower/farm, ruins of walls and columns remind the existence of an abbey, probably dating back to the XIth century. We do not have much information on this abbey, only that it was founded by monks coming from the East during the iconoclast persecution and that it was destroyed and plundered by the Turks. What is certain is that the abbey complex, a centre of culture for prelates and aristocrats of that age, started to be used as a masseria in the seventeenth century and the abbey was deconsecrated in 1878 as deemed improper. Adjacent to Masseria Uccio we find the lovely Sanctuary of Madonna di Fatima. The Church of Madonna Di Costantinopoli (Church of the Devils) is situated along the ancient road leading from Tricase to Tricase Porto. It is a rural church, recently renovated, with an octagonal shape. According to the legend it was built by the devils only in one night.
Along the new road leading to the sea you should stop to admire the majestic Valonia Oak, a monument and symbol of Tricase. The Valonia Oak is a Mediterranean-Eastern species common in the Balkan Peninsula, Syria and Palestine. Salento is the western limit of this species. In Italy we can find it only in the area between Tricase- Tricase Porto and Marina di Novaglie (except for single trees in the area around Brindisi). The Valonia Oak of Tricase is over 20 metres high and its trunk has a circumference of more than 7 metres. In the past the acorns of Valonia Oaks (for the locals “falanita”, “pizzofao” or “lizza-castagna”) were used to obtain the tans employed to dress and colour leathers, a thriving activity in the past in Tricase and interrupted in the late nineteenth century after the introduction of synthetic tans (in the following years several oaks were felled to get timber).
In the past Sant’Eufemia, Tutino and Caprarica del Capo, today districts of Tricase, were autonomous villages, each with its own lovely historical centre, currently not yet entirely refurbished. In the historical centre of Tutino we can admire the Baronial Castle of Tranes, the Church of Madonna delle Grazie and the small San Gaetano Church; in the ancient centre of Caprarica we find the Castle, which can be seen from Masseria Uccio, with its rectangular shape with four cylindrical towers on the corners, and Church of Sant’Andrea Apostolo with the wonderful statue of Sant’Andrea; in Sant’Eufemia the Byzantine crypt vowed to Madonna del Gonfalone is very important from the archaeological viewpoint, and probably it is connected to Farm del Mito through underground lanes. This important site of Salento was for a long time a masseria-convent (religious farm) used as holy place during religious persecutions. Among the municipalities of Lecce province, Tricase is certainly one of the most interesting. Every year a live nativity scene is represented at Christmas time (a few hundreds metres from Masseria Uccio) and the following events take place: in spring the Boat Race Coppa Magna Grecia, in summer the Bands Gathering of Salento and in September the Salento International Film Festival (S.I.F.F.)
(Bed and Breakfast & Agritourism)
Otranto - Santa Maria di Leuca Natural Park
Salento - Puglia