CISTERNINO

Cisternino is an important centre of messapian origin that overlooks on one slope on the Valle d’Itria and for the other on the adriatic coast, what offers an incomparable panorama to its visitors. It is believed that the name Cisternino derives from the hero eponymous Sturnoi, companion of Diomede, that founded the country after the War of Sow. Subsequently the centre was occupied by the Romans, that called it Sturninum. In the Medieval, Cisternino was inhabited by the basiliani monks, fugitives from the east after persecutions, of which it still preserve the traces. As the houses of its historical centre that have a typically oriental aspect, with the hidden courts and the external staircases to connect the plans. And it is really thanks to these monks that the actual historical centre is reborn after the various devastations. Afterwards,  the inhabited area was feud of Monopolies.