Alliste, land protected and blessed by angels

Alliste is located in a valley between the “Serra orientale” and the “Serra costiera”, along the coast of the Ionian Sea. It also includes the hamlet of Felline and the coastal towns of Capilungo and Posto Rosso.

According to oral tradition, it was founded by a group of refugees who fled from Felline, which was ravaged by the Saracens. They called it Alliste in memory of an angel who appeared during their escape and who protected them with his wings, making them invisible to their enemies.

However, human presence in the Allista area dates back to the Lower Paleolithic: in the “Grotticelle del Ninfeo” traces of human presence have been found, with around a hundred artefacts, and the “Ninfeo” area, which includes the area from Masseria Canne to the Masseria Ninfeo of the same name, was still frequented in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.

Along the road from Felline to San Giovanni di Ugento, a menhir approximately two metres and sixty centimetres high is still visible.

The territory achieved legal autonomy in the 12th century, when the Bonsecolo family, to whom Tancredi d’Altavilla had donated those lands as a fief, had them reclaimed, also with the help of the Basilians, owners of the nearby Abbey of the Madonna dell’Alto. From the Bonsecolo family, the fief passed from hand to hand until the Scategna family and the abolition of feudalism in 1806.

Alliste boasts some ancient and valuable religious architecture, such as the Church of San Giuseppe, dating back to the 15th century but rebuilt and expanded in 1600, which houses a Madonna del Santissimo Rosario surrounded by 15 ovals with the Mysteries of the Rosary, executed in the mid-17th century by Giovanni Andrea Coppola (1597-1659); and the Church of San Quintino, built in 1435, but renovated in Baroque style in 1872, which houses a valuable silver statue of the patron saint of the city and various frescoes above the altars of the side aisles. Also worth a visit are the Church of the Beata Vergine Maria Immacolata, built in 1712, which houses the brotherhood of the same name; and the Church of the Madonna dell’Alto, located on the hill overlooking the town, built between the 8th and 9th centuries, according to a deeply felt legend, by a sailor who escaped a shipwreck thanks to the miraculous intervention of the beloved Madonna, invoked in the heart of the storm. The feast of the Madonna dell’Alto takes place on the first Sunday after Easter.

In the hamlet of Felline stands the imposing Baronial Castle built in the 12th century under the Normans, remodeled by the Malaspina in the 13th century and again by the Bonsecolo in the 16th century. Among the illustrious citizens, Salvatore Ferilli deserves special mention, who gained fame as the personal physician of King Vittorio Emanuele II.