Cisternino

the shimmering kasbah of the Valle d’Itria

The Name

According to tradition, the eponymous hero is Sturnoi, the companion of Diomedes.

At the end of the Trojan War, he supposedly founded this town, which the Romans then called Sturninum.

Possibly destroyed in 216 BC during Hannibal’s raids in Puglia, the town returned to life in the 8th century, when a group of refugee Basilian monks from the East noticed the ruins of an ancient village in this area.

They decided to build a Greek Orthodox abbey on the same spot, which they called San Nicolò cis-Sturninum, right where the Mother Church still stands today.

History

• Bronze Age: remains of hut villages, but the first permanent settlements come with the discovery of metals and the arrival of civilizations from across the sea (Greeks, Messapians).

• 1180: the hamlet of Cisturninum is named for the first time in a bull by Pope Alexander III, who confirms its being under the Bishop of Monopoli.

• 1330: sold by the Bishop to a Monopoli nobleman, Cisternino is in the hands of civil barons for over a century. The barony of the hamlet returns to the Bishop in 1463, through the concession of Ferdinand I of Aragon.

• 1495: Cisternino is conquered by the Venetian Republic, which holds it until 1528, when it is taken by the Spanish. The poor government of the Spanish barons, together with the oppressive taxes levied by the Bishop, produce strong resentments among the people.

• 1647: following the example of Masaniello in Naples, the people rise against the bishop–baron and burn his residence. However, the revolt fails.
• 1738: Cisternino is shaken by new revolutionary unrest at the beginning of the Bourbon reign.

• 1799: the people side with the Parthenopean Republic against the king. Nicola Semeraro from Cisternino, leading a band of republicans, is slain at Francavilla Fontana by Bourbon supporters.

• 1820: the secret Carbonari society is active with a group of about 80 persons. Giuseppe Capece from Cisternino is the one who raises the Italian tricolor over the fort at Brindisi, after tearing up the Bourbon flag.

All the Poetry of the South in the White Walls, Arches, and Narrow Streets

There is a suggestive osmosis in the village between the interior and exterior spaces, among houses, tiny streets and courtyards, the result of architectural solutions dictated by practicalness, and a sense of neighborhood and community. This is the classic example of “spontaneous architecture,” designed not by architects following a preestablished plan, but rather by human relations to be fit together, among whitewashed houses and narrow streets, the tiny courtyards and outside stairs, the arches and flower-filled balconies: spaces to appear at, look and lean out from, where people can meet and gather; shared spaces, both public and private.

In the unreal silence of summer afternoons, when the drowsy village abandons itself to indolence before the coming to life again in the evening, it is nice to walk down the chianche (stone-paved streets) among the play of light and shadow created by the narrow streets, the arches, the underpasses. Dazzling white walls and blue sky: this is the poetry of the south.

Between the 19th and 20th century, the town began to develop outside the city walls, where the only things of interest are a few Art Nouveau buildings on Via San Quirico.

In the old town, instead, the finest historical buildings are the tower and the church on the square. The recently restored Norman-Suevian tower was built in the 11th century by the Normans, and is 17 meters tall. It was largely rebuilt in the late 14th century and was remodeled several times in subsequent periods. A statue of St. Nicholas giving blessings stands at the top.

The Church of San Nicola, known as the Mother Church, was built in the 12th century over the previous 8th-century Basilian church, whose foundations remain. The Mother Church also underwent changes over the centuries. The current neoclassical façade was done in 1848, replacing the previous façade, probably Romanesque.

Traces remain of the original design. The cross vault of the transept and some sculptures are from the 13th-14th centuries. There are two magnificent stone sculptures by Stefano da Putignano: the tabernacle dedicated to the Madonna of the Goldfinch (1517) and another smaller one with putti and an Ecce Homo. Next door, a primitive church dating from about 1000 was recently discovered underneath the small Church of Purgatorio (17th cent.).

Also worthy of a visit are: the Bishop’s Palace, built in 1560, with a late Renaissance façade that bears the coats of arms of the bishop-baron; the Governor’s Palace (16th cent.), which has an elegant front with three balconies and Renaissance decorative elements; the houses of the noble Pepe and Cenci families; the small Church of Santa Lucia (17th century) and, outside the walls, the tower and Palazzo Amati, on Via San Quirico; the Church of San Cataldo, completed in 1783 in the Baroque style, with its beautiful dynamic façade; and the Church of San Quirico, constructed between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Important for local worship is the small Romanesque Church of the Madonna d’Ibernia, built in about 1100 at the time of the birth of the hamlet of Cisternino, from which it is 3 km distant. The church incorporates the remains of a preexisting Basilian monastery built not far from a preceding pagan temple dedicated to Cybele, the goddess of fertility. The ancient worship of this goddess lies at the root of the people’s veneration for the Madonna d’Ibernia, also called the “Madonna of the Eggs,” i.e. of procreation and abundance.

During the spring festivals, people bring to the sanctuary as an offering the same cake, chïrrùchele (from the Latin auguraculum, propitiatory gift), that was offered by pagan children to Cybele so that she would bless them with fecundity.

Local Products

Works by artisans in wood or stone, or baskets and rosaries.

Local dishes

The choice is difficult, among friselle (a crisp doughnut-shaped bread), cheeses (especially cacioricotta), extra virgin olive oil, DOC wine and salami-type products (excellent capocollo).

Among first courses, praise goes to orecchiette: with sauce and pecorino and ricotta cheese or, as a variation, with turnip-tops and salted anchovies.