The sulphurous waters come out at thirty degrees from four caves called Gattulla, Solfurea, Fetida and Solfatara. The pagan myth says the smell comes from the bodies of the Leuternian giants, killed by Heracles and left to rot down there; the Christian story tells of Cesarea, who hid in a cave to escape her father, and of the father caught by flames and swallowed by the sea.
The town came late, because the coast was too harsh: only when the road was built, at the end of the nineteenth century, did the marina begin to grow. In 1894 Giovanni Pasca, the first to hold the spa concession, had villa Sticchi built on the rock, all in Moorish style, with its dome and turrets. The municipality dates from 1913, detached from Ortelle; the word «Terme» was added to the name in 1929.
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📅 Every year, on 12 September
On 12 September Santa Cesarea Terme celebrates Saint Cesaria the Virgin, the patron the municipality is named after, together with the thermal springs that made it known along the Salento coast.
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 Santa Cesarea Terme, but an easy day trip away.
