Apulia - 52 Attractions You Must Visit

Types of Attractions in Apulia

Iconic Buildings (10)

Outdoors - Other (7)

Churches (6)

Man-made Structures - Other (6)

Old Towns (6)

Islands (4)

Lake/ River/ Ponds (4)

Beaches (3)

Popular Activities And Trips in Apulia

List of Attractions in Apulia

Albergo Villa San Giovanni

Old Towns

Villa San Giovanni is an Italian town of 13 098 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria in Calabria. The city overlooks the Strait of Messina and its port is the main ferry terminal for Sicily. Punta Pezzo, in fact, located in the municipality of Villa, represents the closest point between the Calabrian and Sicilian shores: this has made the city the ideal location for crossing the strait.

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Alimini Lakes

Lake/ River/ Ponds

The Alimini lakes or Limini lakes are two Apulian lakes located north of the city of Otranto, in the province of Lecce. The two lakes are connected by a canal, called Lu Strittu . The name of the place derives from the ancient Greek and Byzantine name λίμνη, which translated into Italian means lake, swamp, or basin. It is almost completely surrounded by a rocky strip, richly covered by thick pine forests and Mediterranean scrub.

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Alta Murgia National Park

National Parks

The Alta Murgia National Park, abbreviated to PnAM, is a national park established in 2004 located in Puglia, in the provinces of Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani. The administrative headquarters of the Park are in Gravina in Puglia, in Via Firenze n. 10. The park has an extension of 68,033 hectares. It extends in the highest part of the north-west Murge plateau. It coincides with a part of the largest special protection area established to protect the steppe to grasses, the habitat of the lesser

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Altopiano delle Murge

Outdoors - Other

The Altopiano delle Murge is a rectangular karst topographic plateau in southern Italy. Most of it is within Apulia and corresponds to the sub-region known as Murgia or Le Murge. The plateau is mainly located in the metropolitan city of Bari and the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, but extends into the provinces of Brindisi and Taranto to the south, and in Matera in Basilicata to the west. The name is believed to come from Latinmurex, which means "sharpened stone".

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Aragonese Castle of Otranto

Iconic Buildings

The castle of Otranto is the fortress of the homonymous city located in Puglia, in the province of Lecce. The castle, which gave its name to the first Gothic novel in history, is closely related to the city walls with which it forms a single defensive apparatus. The current appearance of the fort is in fact due to Spanish Viceroys, who made it a real masterpiece of military architecture: extraordinary defense works were implemented in 1535 by Don Pedro of Toledo.

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Baia dei Turchi

Outdoors - Other

The Baia dei Turchi , a few kilometers north of Otranto , is the place where, according to tradition, the Turkish warriors landed during the siege of the city of Otranto in the 15th century ( Battle of Otranto ). Sandy and unspoiled, the bay belongs to the precious protected oasis of the Alimini Lakes , one of the most important ecosystems of Salento and Puglia.

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Basilica Cattedrale di San Sabino

Churches

The Bari Cathedral is a religious building of Bari in the region of Apulia in Italy. Although less known than the Basilica of San-Nicola is the seat of the archbishopric of Bari-Bitonto. It is dedicated to Sabin Canosa, a bishop of the vi th century whose relics were made to the ix th century . The current building was built between the xii th and xiii th centuries, on the site of the ruins of the imperial Byzantine cathedral destroyed in 1156 by William I st of Sicily.

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Basilica San Nicola

Churches

The Basilica of St. Nicholas was built in the late 11th century to shelter and venerate the relics of St. Nicholas that reached Bari on May 9th, 1087 from the homonymous church in Myra, Lycia. The classical Romanesque-style basilica is located within the ancient fortified citadel, once occupied by the Catapan Court. It was originally constructed to house the relics of St Nicholas, which were stolen from Turkey in 1087 by local fishing folk. Today, it is an important place of pilgrimage for both

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Capraia Island

Islands

Capraia Isola is an Italian town of 392 inhabitants in the province of Livorno, corresponding to the homonymous island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is found at 64 km from Livorno, 53 km from the Piombino promontory, 37 km from Gorgona, and 31 km from Corsica. It is the least populated Italian municipality among those with an outlet to the sea. Since 1996 it has been part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.

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Castel del Monte

Iconic Buildings

Castel del Monte, located in the municipality of Andria, rises on a rocky hill dominating the surrounding countryside of the Murgia region in southern Italy near the Adriatic Sea. A unique piece of medieval architecture, it was completed in 1240. Because of its relatively small size, it was once considered to be no more than a "hunting lodge", but scholars now believe it originally had a curtain wall and did serve as a citadel.

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Castello Aragonese Taranto

Iconic Buildings

The Aragonese Castle, also known as Castel Sant'Angelo, is the main fortification in Taranto and marks the boundary between the old and the new part of the town. The fortress was designed in the late 15th century by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, upon request of the Aragon King Ferdinand I of Naples, who wanted it for defensive purposes. it is one of the main attractions in this area which welcomes a lot of tourists.

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Castello Normanno-Svevo

Iconic Buildings

The Norman-Swabian castle of Bari, a symbolic building of the city of Bari, is an imposing fortress that stands on the edge of the old city. Since December 2014, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities has been managing it through the Puglia museum complex, which in December 2019 became the Regional Museum Directorate. The castle is surrounded by a moat on all sides, except the northern section, which was bordering the sea and can be accessed from the bridge and the gate on the southe

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Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Announcement

Churches

The cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata is the most important Catholic place of worship in the city of Otranto, the mother church of the homonymous archdiocese. In July 1945, Pope Pius XII elevated the cathedral to the dignity of a minor basilica. The cathedral, built on the remains of a Messapian village, a Roman Domus, and an early Christian temple, was founded in 1068 by the Norman bishop Guglielmo. It is a synthesis of different architectural styles including Byzantine, Early Christian, and

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Church of the Holy Cross

Churches

The Basilica di Santa Croce is the main Franciscan church in Florence, Italy. It is a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. The church is a gleaming riot of sculptural decoration that resembles a wedding cake. Lecce is called the "Florence of the south," and this church is the symbol of Lecce's Baroque splendor that earned it that name. One of the main pilgrimage centres in this area and a tourist attraction too.

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Gallipoli castle

Iconic Buildings

The castle of Gallipoli , almost completely surrounded by the sea, stands with its imposing mass at the eastern end of the island that is home to the ancient village. Probably built as early as the 11th century on pre-existing Roman fortifications, it was rebuilt in the 13th century in the Byzantine era. It was remodeled several times by the conquerors who followed one another over the centuries.

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Gargano

Outdoors - Other

The Gargano, sometimes nicknamed the spur of Italy, is a subregion of Italy coinciding with the homonymous mountain promontory that extends in the northern part of Puglia and corresponds to the north-eastern sector of the province of Foggia. Semi-surrounded by the Adriatic Sea, but limited to the west by the Tavoliere delle Puglie, its territory includes the Gargano National Park. The Gargano peninsula is partly covered by the remains of an ancient forest, Foresta Umbra, the only remaining part

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Gargano National Park

National Parks

The Gargano National Park Covering more than 120,000 hectares, the Gargano National Park is well worth exploring, with its ancient forests and islands bathed in crystal-clear waters. The Park harbors several protected areas, including the Marine Reserve of the Tremiti Islands, an area unlike anywhere else thanks to the extraordinary beauty of its sea beds and natural caves. Inland, the Gargano promontory is home to the last pocket of the verdant Umbra Forest, which was already a vast habitat in

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Grotta Zinzulusa

Caves

The Zinzulusa is a natural coastal cave located along the Salento coast between Castro and Santa Cesarea Terme, one of the best known anchialine caves in southern Italy. The name of the cave derives from the dialect word " zinzuli ", rags, and is due to the karst formations, in particular stalactites , which hang from the ceiling as if they were hanging rags. The formation of the cave, which occurred due to marine erosion, dates back to the Pliocene period.

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