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Ginosa
Description
Ginosa is one of the highest density of population towns of the provence of Taranto and it lies on the border with Basilicata. At the altitude of 240 metres above sea level the town imposes itself as the first outpost of the Murge plateau and it faces over a fertile plain which divide it from the Ionian Sea.
The town district includes the suburb Ginosa Marina, one of the most important beach resorts of the Ionian area.
Since it early ages its stronghold position was an attractive for many settlers. The "Ginosino" area was already inhabited in the Neolithic age, later by the Messapi (Italic population with origins in the area), but it reaches its maximum splendor during the Greek and Roman ages. Genusia, its Greek name, by the Roman writer "Sesto Giulio Frontino" offered asylum to Pitagora.
After the fall of the Roman Empire of the Occident and the Barbarian invasions, the population of Genusia moved from the plain to search for shelter in the nearby caves, some natural and others built in the soft tuff stone of the clefts. Here the Bizantine monks, devoted to Saint Basilio, gave a large contribute to the building and decoration of a larger living reality (famous the wall paints in the cave churches such as Santa Sofia).
At the end of the Middle Ages there was a slow decline of the cave civilization and the inhabitants started to move towards the hill area where the town actually is situated.
The main historical site of Ginosa is the Castle. Built by the Norman "Robert de Guiscard" in 1080, now appears as a large palace thanks to refurbishments completed in the XVI century.
Not to miss the "Mother Church" (Chiesa Madre), built in 1554 and the fortified farm manor "Girifalco".
Map
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