Ugento is located 6 km from the Ionian Sea, between dazzling Gallipoli and Santa Maria di Leuca at the southern tip of Apulia. Once a fortified town built by the Messapians, the ancient inhabitants of the Salento, present-day Ugento is a charming, Salentinian small town, which unfolds its charm above all in the evening.
Ugento is located 6 km from the Ionian Sea, between dazzling Gallipoli and Santa Maria di Leuca at the southern tip of Apulia. Once a fortified town built by the Messapians, the ancient inhabitants of the Salento, present-day Ugento is a charming, Salentinian small town, which unfolds its charm above all in the evening.
Castello di Ugento was built in strategic location on a hill as a stronghold and protection against the dreaded attacks by the Turks and Saracens – that was over 1000 years ago.
Its distinctive, impressive tower dates back to the Normans, who ruled the area from the 11th century on. For 900 years the tower lay hidden, because the castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times. In the course of works of renovation the tower and other findings as well as remains of the castle’s turbulent history were discovered and excavated.
Once the long and elaborate works of renovation had been completed, the old walls finally stood to be admired in new splendor. The town’s landmark, which has been in a nobleman’s family by the beautiful name of d’Amore since 1643, has so-to-speak arrived in the new millennium. Today, it houses, amongst others, a museum for contemporary art, a restaurant (Apulian cuisine!) and a cantina, where wine degustations (only local wines!) takes place regularly.
A stroll through the typical, small alleys of the Old Town takes you to cathedral Santa Maria Assunta, which is worth a closer look, to the clock tower in Piazza San Vincenzo and to the episcopal palace.
All around the small town you see olive groves, partly 100 years old or even older, stretching out for kilometers on end. The ocean of trees with their gnarled trunks and branches defines a unique landscape. Apart from tourism, cultivation of olives is the most important economic sector in the Salento.
The white, long sandy beaches on the Ionian Sea between Santa Maria di Leuca and Gallipoli are often called the Maledive del Salento, the Maldives of the Salento.
The Marina of Ugento, Torre San Giovanni, used to be the harbor of Ugento in Roman times. Today it is a unique bathing paradise, which stretches as far as Pescoluse. Many guests and locals consider these kilometers of Caribbean-like coastline the most beautiful in Apulia.
At Ugento’s Marina, too, a tower is of significance, not least because the fishing village owes its name to a Saracen watchtower. Later it was turned into a lighthouse, which is still active today and warns seafaring people about the shallow, rocky coast at its feet.
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