Puglia

Castel del Monte

Puglia

You'll see Castel del Monte, an inhumanly exact geometric shape on a hilltop, from miles away. Mysterious and perfectly octagonal, it's one of southern…

Cathedral

Otranto

Mosaics, skulls, crypts and biblical-meets-tropical imagery: Otranto's cathedral is like no other in Italy. It was built by the Normans in the 11th…

Basilica di San Nicola

Bari

Bari's signature basilica was one of the first Norman churches to be built in southern Italy, and is a splendid (if square and solid) example of Pugliese…

Basilica di Santa Croce

Lecce

It seems that hallucinating stonemasons have been at work on the basilica. Sheep, dodos, cherubs and beasties writhe across the facade, a swirling…

Museo Faggiano

Lecce

Descend through Lecce's rich historical strata in this fascinating home-turned-museum, where sewerage excavations led to the chance discovery of an…

Museo Archeologico di Santa Scolastica

Bari

Housed in a well-preserved 16th-century defensive bastion, this excellent museum reopened in late 2018 and features a superbly curated overview of the…

Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto

Taranto

Sitting unassumingly in a side street in Taranto's new town is one of Italy's most important archaeological museums, chiefly dedicated to the archaeology…

Tempio di San Giovanni al Sepolcro

Brindisi

This 12th-century church, a brown bulk of Norman stone conforming to the circular plan the Templars so loved, is a wonderfully evocative structure,…