On the first step of the Murge, among Albanian towns

San Giorgio Ionico · Roccaforzata · Monteparano · Palagiano · TA

Three towns close to one another, in the surroundings of Taranto, and one, Palagiano, which the regional portal places 22 km west of the city: it is a short journey, for those who love minor centres and accept many open questions. The sources read speak of the Taranto Murge, of tufa quarries, of masserie. The thread that holds, for Roccaforzata and Monteparano, is the Albanian presence: Monteparano lies, according to its Municipality, in the “Albania Tarantina”; according to the Municipality of Monteparano San Giorgio Ionico too falls within the “Albania Tarantina”, but without traces of that culture, except in some surnames; Roccaforzata recalls in its official history the Albanian soldiers called in by Ferrante I d'Aragona. Roccaforzata stands on the highest hill of the Monte di Sant'Elia, frequented since the Iron Age. Palagiano stays outside this thread and receives a few honest lines. The order of the stops and the division into days are ours.

The route

Day 1 — San Giorgio Ionico

We begin from piazza San Giorgio, where the Regione Puglia's AI Smart portal notes in the paving a mosaic with the saint on horseback. The same record describes the town as overlooking the Gulf of Taranto; according to the Ministry of Culture's record the Casale di San Giorgio is attested between the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century, but of that phase no monument remains, and the oldest buildings are from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What can be seen is the town of the barons: the mother church is mentioned from 1577 and was perhaps built after 1524, when the Casale passed to Baron Antonio Muscettola; the core of the baronial palace is owed, in 1615, to Giulio Cesare Albertini. A notarial deed of 1625 describes a circuit of walls with gates, demolished towards the end of the nineteenth century; what remains of it is a place name, “dell'Arco”. The church of Santa Maria del Popolo was rebuilt at the end of the eighteenth century on the site of the earlier building; around it, the ministerial record lists the church of Maria SS. Immacolata, the chapel of the Madonna della Croce, the chapel of the Calvario near the castle, the palazzi Imperio, eighteenth-century, Alberini-De Siati and Alberini-Caramia, and old votive shrines. The castle of the D'Ayala Valva, according to the Ministry, is of the 20th century, and AI Smart says it was built at the beginning of the twentieth century in medieval-style forms. The ministerial record also recalls that the present name served to distinguish it from twenty-two other municipalities of the same name.

The singular detail lies outside the centre: the Tagghjate, tufa quarries that according to AI Smart run for about 2 km along the side of the Belvedere hill; Wikivoyage, a source to be re-checked, says they have been disused since the mid-Fifties and are now inhabited by Mediterranean scrub. The same Wikivoyage notes a necropolis near monte Sant'Elia with finds from the 4th-3rd century BC: it is the hill of the next day.

Day 2 — Roccaforzata and the Monte di Sant'Elia

The second day climbs the Monte di Sant'Elia. Roccaforzata occupies its highest hill, at 140 metres, which the Municipality describes as the first step of the Murge east of the plain of Taranto. Excavations, the Municipality writes, have revealed an Iapygian settlement and the defensive circuit of a settlement of the Greek period, frequented from the Iron Age at least until the end of the 3rd century BC, when Taranto fell into the hands of Rome. A ministerial decree of 1 August 1995 placed it under archaeological protection; the first phase of the Archaeological Park was completed at the end of 2001, and research was active in 2025: on 18 July of that year the Municipality hosted in the square an update on the excavations, with photos of the materials found. In town the story moves to the fiefs, and here lies the reason for the day. In the 15th century Ferrante I d'Aragona called in Albanian soldiers of Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg; in 1507 the fief went to Lazzaro Mathes, an Albanian commander. In the sixteenth century, the Municipality writes, the Archbishop of Taranto Brancaccio began the transition of the Albanian parish from the Greek to the Latin rite. The series of lords, in the municipal history, runs from the d'Aycllo, around 1400, and then from the La Forza, to the Chiurla, the last barony, which lasted until 1804.

The castle, private, is a seventeenth-century construction in squared blocks of carparo incorporating an older square tower in rubble stone, dated by a technical survey to between the 14th and 15th centuries; inside, cross vaults and star vaults. The Municipality writes that one part dates back to 1407, when the feudal lord of the time hosted Ladislao d'Angiò-Durazzo, King of Naples, for his wedding to Maria d'Enghien: it is the only source read on that episode. In the town the Municipality also points out the mother church of the SS. Trinità, with its renovated churchyard and the monumental fountain, the church of San Nicola and the Loggia Belvedere. About 2 km from the centre, on the road to Lizzano, the Santuario della Madonna della Camera keeps a legend that the Municipality reports as such: during a Turkish invasion the inhabitants of Roccaforzata and Monteparano are said to have taken refuge there, and the eyes of the Madonna depicted are said to have stopped the invaders. That legend leads to the neighbouring town.

Day 3 — Monteparano and Palagiano

Monteparano has its historic core behind the mother church, at 135 metres on the Taranto Murge, and the Ministry's record places it in piazza Castello. The sources do not agree on the dates of its birth, and it is better not to choose one. On the Albanian origin the sources converge, with caution: the Municipality recounts that the town was born from the departure of five Albanian families from the fief of Fragagnano, and the Ministry speaks of a probable Albanian colony of the 16th century. The Antoglietta acquired the fief, and Guglielmo dell'Antoglietta sold it to Nicola Basta, a descendant of an Albanian family; in the eighteenth century, according to the Ministry, it passed to the Bozzicorso marquises. The church of Maria SS. Annunziata, according to the ministerial record, was built in the sixteenth century on an older place of worship and restored in the first half of the eighteenth century; AI Smart describes there a nave with side chapels and a Baroque altar, opposite the castle of the D'Ayala Valva. The castle, according to AI Smart, dates back to the 18th century and nineteenth-century works made it a fortified residence in late Gothic style with crenellations; according to the Ministry it is a fortified residence remodelled in the 19th century. The Municipality indicates Primitivo as the typical product, with the Primitivo di Manduria DOC, and recalls that on 19 March the feast of San Giuseppe is celebrated with votive altars and traditional dishes; AI Smart speaks of “Tavole” with bread and “massa”. The patron saint, San Gaetano da Thiene, is celebrated on 7 August.

Palagiano, 22 km west of Taranto and near the Ionian Sea according to AI Smart, lies outside the Albanian thread: no page read mentions an Albanian presence there. The same record indicates finds from the Roman period, feudal powers from the Dapifero to the Cicinelli, numerous masserie and a historic centre in the two oldest districts, La Terra and Convento, of narrow lanes and low houses. The Palazzo Baronale, which the inhabitants call “castello”, has majolica floors and barrel vaults on the first floor; the Chiesa dell'Immacolata was consecrated in 1582. On the corso, according to the regional portal luoghicomuni, the Old Town Hall with its clock tower has hosted since January 2026 the project “Cultura, tradizione e natura”. The patron saint is San Rocco. Here the sources stop, and with them the journey.

DRAFT of 2026-11-08 · local only · gate run: PASSES WITH CORRECTIONS, 12 defects corrected · not approved