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OSTUNI

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The territory of Ostuni was already attended by hunters of Neanderthal Age in the middle Palaeolithic Age, about 50.000 -40.000 years ago. As Donato Coppola has pointed out, in the higher Palaeolithic age there is a great deal of traces of human population; the burial, in the cave of St. Mary d'Agnano, of a twenty-year woman being on the point of bearing children dates back to 24.500 years ago. The corpse, pitifully placed in a big pit, was in a contracted position, with her hand under the head and the other, embellished with a shell bracelet, on her abdomen as she wanted to protect the baby; the bead was covered with a red ochre and with a sort of bonnet with hundreds of small shells sewn on it. Her belonging to a group of hunters was proved by the remains of her outfit including flints and the teeth of horses and primitive ox. The foetus of the burial ground, called Ostuni 1° is unique throughout the world.
The museum of pre-classical civilizations of southern Murgia, in the ex convent of Monacelle, bears witness to these past ages because, also for its position in the middle of the ancient part of Ostuni, it lies in the place where a village of huts of MiddIe Bronze Age developed about the XVI –XV centuries B.C. Near the museum there is the church of St. Vito, built in 1750-4, among the few Baroque patterns in Ostuni; in the neighbourhood we find the magnificent Cathedral. Ostuni was Episcopal seat since the second half of the XI century; in 1818 it was abolished and the territory was added to the archdiocese of Brindisi to which it was suffrage. It was re-established in 1821 and given to be administered to the archbishops of Brindisi. Through a present measure of abolition, it has been again united with Brindisi; its territory included Ostuni, Carovigno, Locorotondo, San Michele Salentino, San Vito dei Normanni.
The Cathedral began to be built during the episcopacy of Nicola Arpone (1437-70) and it was probably completed about 1520. The front is comparable with that of St. Mary Jernale in Milan; the inside, completely changed in the 171 century, has three aisles. In the fan-light of the major portal there is the image of the bishop Arpone kneeling at the foot of the Virgin on the Throne. Among many churches, we must mention at least that of the Virgin Mary; there are the remarkable panels of the 1611 century choir and the frescoed vault of the chapel of the Crucified, with the images of the four Evangelists and of the Doctors of the Church and the church of the Holy Spirit, ordered to be built by the bishop Vincenzo Meligne in 1637, with a Renaissance porch and fan-light in relief of Dormitio Virginis belonging to the late XV century.
About the civic building, we point out the neoclassical Jurleo pa1ace, in the corner between Francesco Tanzarella-Vitale street and Corso Mazzini, planned by the architect Filippo Gaetano Jurleo (18601926). At the foot of Mount Morrone, along the most beautiful hermitical path in Italy there is the sanctuary of St. Oronzo, the patron of Ostuni; inside there is the cave where Oronzo is supposed to have stopped in order to escape the assassins hired by Nero. The rupestrian (rocky) settlement of St. Biagio in Ribaldo is not so far from here; on the 3rd February, for the celebration of the Saint, believers coming from all the villages of the area of Brindisi gather in the sanctuary. The settlements in the caves usually existed above all in the past; an example is that of St. Mary of Agnano. The caves with cultural functions have often changed their names, as in the example of Agnano where from the pagan sanctuary devoted to Great Mother there has been the change to that of God's Mother. The masserie (farmhouses) of the territory of Ostuni: Rialbo di Sopra, Carestia, Lo Spagnulo, Santa Caterina from the XVI to the XIX centuries, bear witness to the evolution of these factories which are essential for the dairy industry, for the supply of meats and the production of wool.



It is advisable to check also the availability of the B&B and the apartments in Castellana Grotte and the apartments in Casamassima.
 
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