Forgotten Beauty

Built during the Middle Ages in the homonymous district, in a place where the days passed by with the gaze stretched out towards the sea in search of the enemy; on that coast, now underpinned by the ruins of those lookout towers that for years have worked to guarantee the safety of Salento now battered by the Saracen raids. Masseria Cippano became an integral part of that defensive system wanted by the Roman Emperor, Charles V, in direct communication with Torre Sant’Emiliano, from which to receive and forward the danger message in the innermost areas of the hinterland. Equipped with a tower (about 15 meters high) organized on two floors, enriched by a staircase with a drawbridge. A fortified structure equipped with drains, enclosed by paralupi walls and supplied with water system of tanks capable of collecting, filtering and transporting the precious liquid to the various environments. A place of work and war, of life and death, enriched with time by additional buildings, warehouses, barns, stables and a church, dedicated to Sant’Isidoro (1784) After the Christian victory in the battle of Lepanto, the nightmare of the Turkish enemy on the horizon now seemed a distant memory. The war elements were no longer necessary, they were therefore replaced or abandoned. The development of the farm complex could now proceed, leaving the rooms on the first floor to the noble man or the farmer, who would supervise the work of his settlers from above. But the Turkish took another form. He no longer came from the sea on a threatening sailing ship, but from the chaotic capital, Rome, with a following of cameras and actors. This time the farm is taken over! An attack that brought some light. Cleaned and refurbished after decades of neglect. Cippano temporarily becomes a Turkish possession, that of Ferzan Ozpetek!

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