Vieste

Vieste, Puglia (Apulia), Italy

This old medieval town stands on the eastern coastline of the Gargano, a peninsula protruding towards Dalmatia, surrounded by the Adriatic Sea and separated from the Appennines by the Tavoliere plateau.

The area offers unique landscapes of great naturalistic and historic beauty, having been the melting pot of foreign populations - Slavs, Greeks, Saracens - each leaving its heritage in the culture and architecture.

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vieste coatofarms
Where to stay

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Info:

Population: ca. 14,000 inhabitants -- Zip/postal code: 71019 -- Phone Area Code: 0884 -- Patron Saint: Santa Maria di Merino celebrated on 9 May - San Giorgio celebrated on 23 April -- Frazioni & Localities: Pugnochiuso

What to see

The cathedral Santa Maria di Merino, in the Romanesque-Apulian style, overlooking the medieval centre with its white houses and narrow alleys.
Along the coast there are famous grottos of amazing beauty, such as the Campana, Contrabbandieri, Marmi and Sogni grottos.
Pizzomunno - South of the town there is a beach called Castello, where a 25 mt high monolith rises, known as Pizzomunno, which is almost a symbol of Vieste itself. There is a fine legend connected to the rock. In remote times, when the town was only a small fishermen's village, a young, strong man named Pizzomunno loved a beautiful girl named Cristalda (other versions call her Vesta or Vieste), who had long, beautiful hair of the color of the sun.
Everyday Pizzomunno went to the sea with his ship for fishing, and each time the sirens tried with their song to seduce him, also offering him immortality and to honor him as their king. But the man always returned to his beloved Cristalda. One night, as the two lovers were together on an islet near the coast, the sirens attacked Cristalda and pulled her down to the sea bottom. Pizzomunno tried in vain to save her. The following morning he was found on the beach, changed by the pain into the white cliff that still bears his name. But every 100 years Cristalda rises from the abyss to join for one night her young lover again.