Here they speak Griko, the Greek language of the Salento, and in Griko the village is called Chóra, that is, «the village» and nothing more: it is the name the inhabitants still use. The Italian name, says the linguist Rohlfs, comes instead from sterna, cistern, and of large cisterns there are four here.
The Basilian monks had an abbey, San Zaccaria, where Greek books were copied. In 1481 it was from the castle of Sternatia that the expedition set out to free Otranto from the Turks, who had taken it the previous August. On the coat of arms there is no agreement: some see a dragon, others a basilisk, and in 1984 the Heraldic Institute declared it a swan.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 22 August, after the Pizzica Festival and Saint Roch
Sternatia celebrates Saint George the Martyr on 22 August, after an August of festivals including the Pizzica Festival, a stop on the Notte della Taranta and Saint Roch.
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 Sternatia, but an easy day trip away.
