Giurdignano lies in south-eastern Salento, not far from Cape Otranto, and they call it the megalithic garden of Italy: within its territory, a little over thirteen square kilometres, stands one of the densest concentrations of dolmens and menhirs in the country, more than twenty-five monuments between the village and the fields. The name, by contrast, is Roman: like many ending in -ano it is praedial, that is, it comes from the name of the owner of an estate, perhaps a Cerdinius recorded in the Salento.
The finest piece is underground. The crypt of San Salvatore, cut into the tufa between the eighth and the tenth centuries, has three naves, round apses and an iconostasis, and its vaults are worked to imitate churches built above ground: a false Greek-cross dome over the presbytery and a false coffered ceiling over the nave. It was entirely frescoed, and in the central apse a Virgin and Child between two angels of the twelfth century survives. In 1780 a small church dedicated to Saint Vincent Ferrer was built on top of the crypt: a church above a church. Of the feudal past one turn at least is worth recalling: in the fourteenth century the fief went to Giacomo Pipino, personal physician to king Philip of Anjou.
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📅 Every year, on 16 August
On 16 August Giurdignano, a municipality of 1,928 inhabitants in the province of Lecce, celebrates San Rocco, protector of the village, with festive lights, brass band concerts and a musical performance.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Giurdignano, but an easy day trip away.
