Specchia boasts one of the most fascinating historical centers of Salento. The old village is a maze of intricate alleys, of courtyard houses with flowered balconies, at every crossroads the ancient niche of a saint peeks out and suddenly, the noble profile of the Risolo Castle or the harmonic lines of the Franciscan Convent appears Neri or the curious Column of Immunity, which was enough to touch to escape from arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The historic center of the village of Specchia, in Puglia, is considered among the most beautiful of the Salento.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":312233,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"the-village":"
The village of Specchia owes its name from the accumulation of dry stones that the Messapians used as defense works and watch stations. In the Middle Ages, Specchia was called Speda de Amygdalis<\/em> and over\u00a0the centuries had also been called Specchia Mendolia<\/em>. The name indicates that in the past the area of Specchia was rich in almond trees. An almond tree which grows on a mound of stone is represented, in fact, even on the civic coat of arms of the village. According to the legend, Specchia was founded by the Roman matron Lucrezia Amendolara, to whom is dedicated the main street of the village. The full name was \"Specchia Preti\", but after the Unification of Italy people felt the need to clear the epithet \"Preti\" (priests) and King Vittorio Emanuele II welcomed the request in 1873.<\/p>\n The first news about the existence of the hamlet\u00a0of Specchia date back to the XI century when, probably, a small nucleus of peasants and shepherds, to shelter from the frequent Saracen raids, occupied this hill that was high enough and far from the sea. The hill began to be surrounded by large walls, towers and other military works, but nothing remained. In memory of that, there is\u00a0only the name of two roads: Mura di Ponente\u00a0and Mura di Levante. As for\u00a0the fifteenth-century towers only two has remained, even if they are incorporated in subsequent constructions.<\/p>\n The old town centre is the highest expression of life and history of the population, and the one of Specchia is considered the most beautiful of the Salento area. Still today, it reveals a medieval system enclosed in a 700 meters long circle, that corresponds with the perimeter of the ancient walls. Around the primitive nucleus, constituted by the castle, a series of houses and roads were slowly built around it, as the population increased significantly. The most striking thing is the one\u00a0placed behind the castle. Here the steep nature of the place transformed the streets in stairways creating a prospective game and a scenography that you can't see easily in the rest of Salento.<\/p>\n Everywhere you can see short, narrow streets that sometimes reveal glimpses of the plain below and other times end in alleys or open up onto courts,\u00a0almost like small squares, with stacks made with the local stone to wash clothes, with the common tank and the cultivated flowers. These courts represent the ancient lounges of the people, who spent great part of the day outdoors and came into the house only to eat and sleep. The story tells that during the Kingdom\u00a0of Naples, Salento had the supremacy in the olive oil production; in fact, Capo di Leuca is full of these architectural structures that are now abandoned.
\nBut the old town centre of Specchia does not only hide great things\u00a0on every street corner, but also below them. You must absolutely visit the undeground olive oil mills, that date back to a period of time between 1500 and 1800.
\nThey were built underground for two reasons: the simplicity of excavation was more convenient than building on the ground level; moreover, it was easier to keep a constant temperature of about 20\u00b0C degrees: this is the optimal temperature for the separation of the so-called santina<\/em> from the oil itself.
\nAnother\u00a0expedient\u00a0was to place the mouth of the mill to south, to defend themselves better from the north winds.<\/p>\n
\nOlive oil mills were the fundamental economic resource of this land.<\/p>\n","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"stato_borgo":[],"village-conntection":[51112],"borghi":[76346,76351],"village-category":[164887,35899,35901,35890],"class_list":["post-175769","village","type-village","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","village-conntection-specchia-it","borghi-apulia","borghi-lecce","village-category-medieval-village","village-category-most-beautiful-villages-in-italy","village-category-orange-flag-countries","village-category-village-with-castle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/village\/175769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/village"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/village"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/village\/175769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"stato_borgo","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stato_borgo?post=175769"},{"taxonomy":"village-conntection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/village-conntection?post=175769"},{"taxonomy":"borghi","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/borghi?post=175769"},{"taxonomy":"village-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-borghi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/village-category?post=175769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}