Montalbano Park

A park located adjacent to the eastern wall of the Norman Castle - Svevo, was originally a plot of land left in a state of abandonment, then transformed, around 1700, by the Fathers Celestini of the nearby convent, in a beautiful and charming hanging garden sloping in several terraces and the employed as pensatoio, as orchard and probably for the cultivation of medicinal herbs, as would demonstrate precisely the presence of the symbol of Asklepios. Later the property passed to the family Salerno - Apples which with great taste he enriched with various plants of exotic origin and many flowerbeds, by framing and by placing it in part as Italian garden and in part to the English, by the creation of a pleasant naturalistic route with panoramic views from which still today you can admire a magnificent landscape. In September 2013, during the works of the redevelopment of Montalbano Park (a mediterranean garden of municipal property located along the north side of the hill on which the castle stands of Oria) were found a series of archaeological testimonies, ranging from the Hellenistic Age (IV-III century a. C.) and the medieval age (X-XII century d.C.). Most of the discoveries are concentrated in three assays of excavation carried out in 2015 that have allowed us to document the existence of at least three residential structures to residential character and productive of medieval age (in one of the houses found, in fact, have been brought to light the remains of a millstone useful for processing of agricultural products), a cemetery (that returned the remains of a dozen people lived probably between the X and the XII century after Christ, in addition to numerous remains of the skeletons attributable to children died after a few months of life).