Every design for Gravina In Puglia

From the ponte acquedotto, the bridge and aqueduct that spans the ravine, Gravina in Puglia shows where its name comes from: the gravina itself, a deep, canyon-like cleft cut into the limestone by a stream of the same name. Part of the town is built along its edge, and the country around is riddled with caves and sinkholes.

Few towns in Apulia have as long a story to tell. People lived here from the Palaeolithic onwards, drawn by water and woods, and the hill of Botromagno, now the Parco Archeologico Botromagno, held one settlement after another. Gravina became a Greek polis with the right to mint its own coins, and the Via Appia passed through on its way to Brindisi. Frederick II hunted across the Murgia from a castle built here, of which the Castello Svevo is what remains, and the motto Grana dat et vina, it offers wheat and wine, is credited to him. From 1386 to 1816 the Orsini held the town as a fief, and Pope Benedict XIII was born here in 1649. Today it is home to the Alta Murgia National Park and a member of Cittaslow.

If your family comes from here, take the ravine, the bridge and the hill of Botromagno with you wherever you go.