San Michele Salentino · Latiano · Torre Santa Susanna · Erchie · BR
Four municipalities in the province of Brindisi, among olive trees and vines. The starting point comes from the 2015 regional map-guide, which joined Torre Santa Susanna and Erchie in route no.51, “Ciclovia dell'Acquedotto (II)”; but no open source so far links the cycle route to these towns, and the aqueduct theme does not hold here. Another thread holds instead, documented by the municipalities: Torre Santa Susanna was for centuries subject to Oria, until the autonomy of 1564, while Latiano passed in 1641 to the Imperiali, marquises of Oria and Francavilla. In Torre, moreover, oil has dug into the rock; in Latiano olive mills and palmenti sustained the economy after Unification. Erchie and San Michele Salentino have little verified information and will get a few lines. It is a journey for those who willingly read minor towns through their documents.
At a glance
Duration. 3 days.
The route
Day 1 — San Michele Salentino and Latiano
The journey begins from San Michele Salentino, about which the open sources say little. Wikipedia places it at 153 metres above sea level, with the hamlet of Borgata Ajeni and an economy of olives and grapes; the patron is San Michele Arcangelo, celebrated on 29 September, and since 2007 the town has been twinned with Monte Sant'Angelo. An events portal points out in via Pascoli the municipal picture gallery “Salvatore Cavallo”, without describing it. The history of the town we have not found in a usable source, and we leave it blank.
In Latiano the Ministry of Culture sheet on the historic centre places its origin probably in the 11th century. The municipality reports that, according to the historian Primaldo Coco, in 1092 the church of San Michele Arcangelo in contrada Malignano, then territory of Oria, was granted to the monastery of Sant'Andrea dell'Isola of Brindisi. To the time of the Francone date the convent of the Dominicans, the Chiesa Madre, Sant'Antonio and the Immacolata; in 1641 the fief passed to Carlo Imperiali III, marquis of Oria and Francavilla, and with the Imperiali the castle, the Chiesa Madre and Sant'Antonio took on a Baroque guise. The castle, documented from 1577, preserves on the side of via Attilio Spinelli its 16th-century appearance, with two square towers. The medieval tower known as “el Solise”, documented from 1528, bears moral maxims carved on its windows. The municipality also recalls the olive mills and palmenti that after Unification sustained the economy until the years after the First World War, and the riot of May 1917, whose fire destroyed most of the historical archive. Here was born, on 10 February 1841, Bartolo Longo, who in 1876 laid the first stone of the Sanctuary of Pompeii. The Polo Museale, a “widespread museum”, holds together the former convent of the Dominicans, with the Museo delle Arti e Tradizioni di Puglia and that of the Storia della Farmacia, the Museo del Sottosuolo, the Torre del Solise, Palazzo Imperiali with the municipal picture gallery, and the Parco Archeologico di Muro Tenente, which the park's website describes as a Messapian settlement on the border with Mesagne, enclosed by walls for over 2.5 km over about 50 hectares. From the Imperiali, lords of Oria, the next day we move on to a town that obtained its autonomy from Oria.
Day 2 — Torre Santa Susanna
In Torre Santa Susanna rises the column of the patron saint, with the statue on top, and behind it there is a chain of causes that the municipality tells in order. In the Norman age Riccardo, lord of the County of Oria, had a castle built there called “Granarium Uriae”, because it stored the grain of the area; it was destroyed in 1256, during the siege of Oria led by Manfred of Swabia. On the ruins Charles I of Anjou had a watchtower erected at the end of the 13th century, and an Angevin edict that exempted the place from duties and excises drew the families of the villages into the new nucleus, which remained under Oria until the autonomy recognised in 1564. The earthquakes of 1668 and 1743 led to the collapse and then the demolition of the tower; in 1837, on the site of a medieval guard tower, Sardella da Cursi raised the column, which commemorates the escape from the cholera contagion. The Chiesa Matrice, built in 1330, owes its present appearance to the 1590 renovation by Venetian craftsmen, in Veneto-Dalmatian style, and has a portal with a sculpture attributed to master Raimondo da Francavilla; inside are two canvases by Domenico Carella and the reliquary bust of Santa Susanna, from the first half of the 17th century. The Palazzo Baronale, erected in the 16th century for Tiberio Dormio, received from the De Angelis, with the architect Francesco Capodieci, a first floor, a rusticated portal and a grain pit for the tithes; in 1733 the Filo enlarged it, crenellated it and transformed it into a castle.
Beneath the town lies the other Torre, the Torre of oil: underground olive mills with sciave, milling rooms with millstones and presses, cisterns and rooms dug into the rock, presses “in the Calabrian and Genoese style”, rest and dining rooms. Only a minimal part can be visited. Above ground the Palazzo della Cultura, the old Palazzo Municipale, houses the municipal library on its upper floor, and the Teatro Comunale was inaugurated on 26 April 1952. A detail from the documents: on 20 May 1497 the procession of Queen Isabella Del Balzo passed through here, on its way from Lecce to Naples, described in the poem “Lo Balzino” by Ruggiero di Pazienza. The next day we leave the town, towards the villages from which the town's families came.
Day 3 — Crepacore, Galaso and Erchie
The countryside of Torre is made of centuries-old olive groves and vineyards, in the area of Primitivo di Manduria. Around 660, writes the municipality, these places stood on the border line between Lombards and Byzantines called “Limitone dei Greci”; villages arose there, often set on Roman villas: Tobiano, Crepacore, Surbole, San Giacomo. Of the village of Crepacore there remains, along the provincial road to Mesagne, the church of San Pietro, which the two pages of the municipality date differently, with three naves and three domes, made with reused materials and painted with Byzantine frescoes, in an archaeological area with a Roman villa and an early medieval necropolis, where 14 tombs have been found. The sanctuary of Santa Maria di Galaso, instead, was born from a discovery: in 1481 a Basilian cave on the outskirts of the village, and a small church for its Byzantine fresco. The altar stands 2.5 metres below street level; the high altar, in Lecce stone, is by Carluccio da Muro and from 1727, that of the Presepe from 1588.
At about 3.2 km, according to the gcatholic.org directory, stands the sanctuary of Santa Lucia of Erchie, the last stop and a town of little verified information. Wikipedia indicates Santa Lucia and Sant'Irene as patrons and mentions a Palazzo Ducale with the columns of the two saints; a local newspaper of 2018 describes the Perdonanze of Santa Lucia, on the two Thursdays after Easter, and the bonfire of San Giuseppe. The most solid information comes from the neighbouring town: the cholera of 1837, which Torre Santa Susanna commemorated with its column, struck Erchie instead. The journey, in our proposal, closes here.
DRAFT of 2026-11-08 · local only · gate run: PASSES WITH CORRECTIONS, 12 defects corrected · not approved