Tour of the ancient town of Vico del Gargano
With this two-hour guided tour, immerse yourself in the charm of the old town of Vico del Gargano: among the cobblestone streets and houses adorned with coats of arms and portals, you will visit the ruins of the castle, the Mother Church, Palazzo Della Bella and the Trappeto Maratea Museum.
Only a few kilometers from the coast and the lovely beaches of Gargano, Vico del Gargano is on the hill amid the citrus groves and the gloriously lush Umbra Forest. Legend tells that, having been founded around the year 900, it was passed by Otto I to the Slavs of Dalmatia and Istria as a reward for liberating the area from the Saracens. This guided tour will lead you to the discovery of the old town, which still looks mediaeval, has three districts – Civita, Terra and Casale – a labyrinth of steps and narrow alleyways. People lived on the first floor of the traditional terraced houses (called a pjeddë) while the ground floor was used as a stable or for storage. A few traces of defensive walls and ruins of the castle remain from the Norman-Swabian period, when the town was flourishing which occupies a key position in the town’s fortification system and dominates access to the old districts of Civita and Terra. Its round tower and rooms with cross-vaulting have been incorporated into the surrounding houses. Not to be missed is the mighty dome of the Mother Church, dedicated to the Assumption; the church of San Marco dates from the 14th century but has been altered several times; the church of San Giuseppe has a wooden statue of the Dead Christ, carried in solemn procession through the streets on Good Friday. Palazzo Della Bella, built in the early 20th century, is supposedly a copy of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. An old underground olive press now houses the Trappeto Maratea Museum, illustrating how olives are traditionally processed to produce olive oil. The collection includes a wooden press, old tools for processing the olives and others for farm work. At the end of the tour, strongly recommended is visit the surroundings, where are several other trappeti, olive presses hewn out of the rock, some restored and converted.
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This project is co-financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II)