Maruggio
Maruggio is situated in a valley, surrounded by olive tree and vineyards. Its inhabited centre extends mostly in the plain. The coast, covering about 9 km, is prevalently at intervals smooth and sandy. Campomarino (Maruggio marine) boasts a crystalline, transparent, unpolluted and calm sea.
Historical notes
Maruggio had its first organization somehow documented beginning with the X-XIth century, with the installation of the Italian-Greek monks, that have created a civility all along the Ionic coast and inside the murgiati mattocks. The belonging of this agricultural-maritime centre to the Temple Chevaliers Order first, and then to the one of Malta, is attested by an Angevin document dated 9 October 1320.
The Malta Chevaliers have continuously governed from 1315-1320 to 1819. Meanwhile, Maruggio, unlike the adjacent towns, that have been suffering the feudatories’ impositions and the usury of the Viceking’s tax-system for centuries, was grown-up, for the times’ nature, under the sign of an unhoped-for democracy. Its inhabitants were living properly, dedicating themselves to the sheep farming and to the farm labours, also practising a profession on their own. After the Murattian laws (1806), with the return of the Borbons on the Napoli throne, the religious jurisdiction in the Maruggio parish passed to the Oria Ordinary.
Monuments
Matrix Church, S. Giovanni Battista penitente Church, Palazzo Caniglia, Castello dei Cavalieri di Malta (The Malta Chevaliers Castle).
The Surroundings
The Maruggio territory is strewn with myriads of trullos (li trodduri). These are though different from the Alberobello trullos by shape and stone colour.
The bathing hamlet of Campomarino di Maruggio, the most important of the municipality, is also a touristy harbour and a fishing centre.
The Campomarino Dunes have been proposed as a site of communitarian importance (SIC). The littoral vegetation is composed by about hundred species, amongst which the shrubbery thyme, the softy juniper, the lentisk, the beach-grass, the sand spear grass and the rosemary.
Oria: The Oria town is situated on the highest ground of a hilly cordon of antiques coasty dunes located halfway between Brindisi and Taranto, in the Northern part of Salento, close to Maruggio. Nowadays, the town, for its monumental and landscape beauties, is among the most important destinations aimed by the Puglia tourism.
Other towns to be visited in the neighbourhoods: Sava, Torricella, Manduria
How to reach Maruggio
By car:
Coming from the Highway, from North towards Taranto, exit at Massafra, at about 60 km away from Maruggio. Then you carry on for Taranto, in the industrial area take the SS Appia direction Brindisi till Maruggio.
By train:
By Taranto: 35 km away. Take the CTP buses. The end of line is in V.le Magna Grecia. For further details and info, please visit the AMAT and CTP websites. The phone number for the Maruggio depot is: 099 675587 or the green number: 800 230083.
By Brindisi: 60 km away. Take the Brindisi-Taranto train and get off at Maruggio.
By Lecce: 60 km away. Take the Lecce-Martina train and get off at Manduria, then take a bus to Maruggio.
By Plain:
Brindisi Airport: 60 km away. Take the shuttle for the Brindisi train station then the train for Taranto and get off at Maruggio.
Bari Airport: about 130 km away from Maruggio, once you get to the Airport take a shuttle to Bari train station, take a train for Taranto where it is necessary to proceed by Pullman for Maruggio.