Salice Salentino, fra salici piangenti e vini negroamaro

Dario Melissano 26 December 2022

Salice was born and expanded in a land where in the past plants were abundant, especially Salinaceae, in the Salento dialect li salici.

However, these plants arrived in Europe at the end of the 17th century, when the farmhouse had already been given this name for some time. Another explanation, more plausible today, is given by the scholar Gilberto Spagnolo. According to his hypothesis, the origin of the name is simply due to an ancient family from Lecce, the Salice, who dominated the town during the Norman period.

At the beginning Salice was just a farmhouse, a small group of peasant homes, of particular importance only for its strategic position, on the border between the Principality of Taranto and the County of Lecce.

In 1392 Salice became part of the Orsini Del Balzo family. Raimondello Orsini del Balzo was an aristocratic and courageous knight, Prince of Taranto and of the Terra d’Otranto, husband of Maria d’Enghien. Raimondello had an imposing and sumptuous castle built in Salice which was later transformed into private homes (the remains of the so-called Casa del Re are visible at the exit of the town in the direction of Taranto)

Surrounded by vineyards that produce excellent wine, Salice Salentino is above all an agricultural center, nestled in the barren lands of Arneo.

The heart of the small ancient village is Piazza Plebiscito, with the elegant baroque profile of the Mother Church dedicated to the Assumption, with a façade embellished with pinnacles and statues.

A few steps away, in Via Umberto I, stand the Convent and Church of the Visitation, built by order of the Marquis Albricci in the sixteenth century.

In Salice Salentino there are two museums that we could define as opposites, the Negroamaro museum, dedicated exclusively to wine, and the original and incredible museum of nativity scene art. Both were born from private initiatives, and are worth a visit to understand the dichotomous binomial that expresses the town nestled between the Cupa valley and the Arneo lands.

Cart

Cart

Cart

Cart

Salice Salentino, between weeping willows and negroamaro wines

Written by Dario Melissano

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Cart

Cart

You have not viewed any product yet!

Cart

Cart

Cart

Cart

Salice Salentino, between weeping willows and negroamaro wines

Written by Dario Melissano

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Tag

Cart

Cart

You have not viewed any product yet!