House Salento Central Rooms

Torre San Giovanni has a history that is at least as old as the city of which it has recently become a fraction, after having always been a seafarer. Everything suggests that this maritime port has had a certain strategic importance since the times of the Messapian town of Ozan (renamed Uxentum by the Romans and therefore Ugento). The territory of Torre San Giovanni is quite extensive and varied. In addition to the inhabited area, which is concentrated around the Tower and extends from the Mare Verde district in the north to the beginning of the Fontanelle district in the south, there are areas of great historical-archaeological interest (the ancient remains of the Pazze district) and naturalistic (the important site of the municipal pine forest). Furthermore, similarly to the territory of Ugento, there are vast agricultural and pasture areas. In particular, in the territory of Torre San Giovanni there are most of the reclamation basins and the relative canals which allowed the eradication of malaria. Nevertheless, the crystalline waters of Torre San Giovanni were decorated three times between the nineties of the Blue Flag of the “Foundation for Environmental Education” (FEE). The fixed population (therefore not linked to the tourist season) has experienced fluctuating fortunes. Definitely far from the numbers of a real town, but at the same time such as to make the definition of "marina" unsuitable, it fought for a long time to obtain that Torre San Giovanni be assigned services that would make it fully usable even during the winter period. Since there were no schools, a post office and a stable medical center (in the last two cases there is a post office and an emergency room, open only during the summer), the navy became completely dependent on Ugento even in the most elementary needs. For this reason, the resident citizens formed an association, obtaining in 2005 the recognition of the status of hamlet, which should allow a full adaptation of Torre San Giovanni to a habitable area regardless of the season. However, the denomination "Marina di Ugento" [6] has remained to characterize the area in common parlance, so as to make the toponym Torre San Giovanni not too well known.