CAROVIGNIO

LOCAL HISTORICAL MUSEUMS AND PLACES

ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM “FRANCESCO RIBEZZO”

in Brindisi

The archeological museum was founded in 1954 and dedicated to Francesco Ribezzo, a great student of Messapic Age.

The entrance of the museum is through an arcade of the XI century and a large atrium, .

ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM “FRANCESCO RIBEZZO”

in Brindisi

In the atrium

there are medieval capitals.

In the sala “De Leo” of the museum there is a collection which consists of a rich series of Apulian vases with scenes of offerings to the dead and Dionysian representations, a fair number of Gnathian vases.

ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM “FRANCESCO RIBEZZO”

in Brindisi

In the “Tarantini-Camassa” hall we can find:

• pieces found during the excavation in the oldest part of

Brindisi ; •vases and Messapic

inscriptions found at Carovigno, the ancient Karbinia.

ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM “FRANCESCO RIBEZZO”

in Brindisi

HALL OF MARBLE STATUESThe statues all found in the central Part of Brindisi are a product

of handicraft on Hellenic model.

ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM “FRANCESCO RIBEZZO”

in Brindisi

Dating the Bronze Age (3000 B.C.) are the vases with geometric drawings and the funeral equipment all found at:

Torre Guaceto Tower…

…and at Santa Sabina, along Brindisi coast-

line.

Vases of the Bronze AgeVase with geometrical

drawings

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

The museum is in the Norman-Svevian castle, in the city centre.

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

Mesagne is a town in the province of Brindisi, 15 km far from Carovigno..

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

• The history of the castle of Mesagne is strongly marked by bloody fights: the ancient castle, built by Roberto il Guiscardo in the XII century, was completely razed to the ground by Manfredi in 1256. On its ruins in the XV century De' Balzo Orsini erected the actual building that has had a lot of rearrangements before assuming the peculiarities of a splendid residential palace.

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

The collection , belonged to Marquis Ugo Granafei, consists of a rich series of findings dating back from Prehistoric Age to Medieval Age.

The collection was gradually enriched with exhibits donated by several individuals.

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

A rich series of messapic pottery can be found in this museum. The most common shape is the “trozzella”. It was an anphora that Messapic people used to carry water, particularly attested in numerous female burials.

According to the most accredited theory among scholars, the Messapi came from Illyria, from the opposite side of the Adriatic. In the second half of the twelfth century BC they occupied in successive waves, the ancient Apulia.

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

Among ceramic objects also prevail: - small pot-bellied amphorae or daily use tableware;- vases of Gnathia, a ceramic coming from Egnatia which was the center of production. These vases have red figures and local vessels painted on a black glaze , silver and bronze buckles.

“GRANAFEI” MUSEUMin Mesagne

But there are also small pieces of pottery in the shape of animals used as rattles: they are toys and games used in Messapian and Roman ages. Among these, noteworthy is an exemplary form of a horse dating V century BC.

THE MESSAPIAN TOMBS

These rich Messapian tombs were first discovered in the 19th century.

In Messapian necropolis there isa special kind of pottery made between the middle of the 4th century B.C. and the 3rd century B.C. with decoration in red, white and yellow painted over the black glaze.

THE ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK OF EGNAZIA

It is on the sea, on the border between Peucetia (territory of Bari) and Messapia (present-day Salento), at the halfway-point

on the major ancient road between Bari and Brindisi.

The earliest human presence in the area dates back to the Late Bronze Age (13th-12th centuries B.C.)

The plant of the city walls dates back to the Messapian age, from the end of the 5th century B.C. These walls, almost 2 km long ,

protected the city in a semicircle facing inland.

THE ROMAN PERIOD

The region fell to the Romans in the 3rd century (near by Brindisi became a Roman colony in 244 B.C.).The monumental centre of Gnathia bears witness to the “Romanization” of the city. Walking through ancient

Gnathia one can view remains of the Civic Basilica, the so-called amphitheatre and the forum.

THE ROMAN PERIOD

THE ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK OF EGNAZIA

Civic basilicaForumThe Roman Via Traiana

THE ROMAN PERIOD

The criptoporticus: an underground storage for grain. “Mosaico delle tre Grazie”: a roman

tassellated paving.

The end