The Park of Porto Selvaggio and The Captain’s Marsh

The Park of Porto Selvaggio took life in the fifties, thanks to a reclassification of the territory carried out by the State Forestry Corps that transformed the area, owned by the late Baron Fumarola and at the time basically constituted by stony expanses, in a dense area boschiva.L ‘extension of the park exceeds 1,100 hectares, a quarter of which occupied by a pine forest, mainly formed by pines of Aleppo. The park runs along the coast for about 7 kilometers and, right in the coastal stretch, presents some of its most beautiful attractions, all over the Grotta del Cavallo, whose first urban settlements date back to about 35 thousand years ago, witnessed by a series of archaeological finds of great importance. In addition to the caves that can be seen on the surface there are those located underwater: the most striking is the Grotta delle Corvine, where you can admire a large marine fauna, populated by bream, hermit crabs and cipree. to the spectacle offered by nature, the park of Salento boasts three ancient towers, the Torre dell’Alto, the Torre Inserraglio and the Torre Uluzzu, all built to detect possible attacks by the invaders and still well preserved today. The exploration of the park offers beautiful routes, which can be tackled on foot or by bike. The Captain’s Marsh is a body of water, where currents of sea water and fresh and cold ground water coexist, probably created because of the sinking of an ancient cave. The uncontaminated nature is the protagonist of the swamp: the vegetation sees the presence of pines, cypresses and grasses, while the fauna has species such as the lizard, the lizard, the kestrel and the blackcap.