Santa Maria al Bagno

What to see in Santa Maria al Bagno

Santa Maria al Bagno is part of the municipality of Nardò, in the province of Lecce and, during the summer, it is populated by thousands of italian and foreign tourists. This beautiful beach locality in Salento is the perfect place for those who love crystal-clear water and wild coasts full of inlets and bays that alternate with pinewoods and white beaches.

The town has a very ancient history: many evidences found in the Grotta del Fico (the fig cave) show that it has been inhabited since the prehistory and then developed as a fishermen hamlet during the messapian and roman period. The Romans also built numerous thermal centres with bathtubs, an abbey and a monastery that housed the teutonic knights. 

In Santa Maria al Bagno the tourists can spend a relaxing holiday surrounded by sea, nature, history, culture and interesting monuments: the Museum of "Memoria and Accoglienza" (the museum of memory and hospitality) that testifies how more than a hundred thousand Jews found shelter in Santa Maria al Bagno during the second world war thanks to the army; the Torre del Fiume di Galatena, one of the many coastal sighting towers of Salento built by Carlo V to protect the land from the saracenic invasions.