It is not out of place when approaching the great beauty of underground Puglia to quote the words of Little Prince Of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “What is essential is invisible to the eye”. Because although now many of the treasures kept under our feet have “emerged” and exalt the treasure chest of beauty and uniqueness that, without emphasis, expresses the land of Puglia, there was a time, not even very distant, in which places that are now iconic were unknown and therefore invisible.
This is the case of the Castellana Caves – now the most visited site of naturalistic interest in the region – discovered only on 29 January 1938 by the speleologist Franco Anelli. Or, again, the Altamura Man discovered in the Lamalunga cave just in the autumn of 1993. While it was only in 1999, again in Altamura, that the discovery in the Pontrelli quarry of a deposit of over 20 thousand dinosaur footprints, which came to the surface precisely thanks to mining activity. A discovery that tells of another era of a land that, let it not seem like a joke, can be summed up in two words: Jurassic Puglia.
It is an immense heritage under our feet, another point of view of the region that Bari Republic he decided to tell in the volume Underground Puglia. From the caves to the hypogea, history over the centuries which, thirteenth volume of the series Barisiennewill be donated to readers who purchase the newspaper on newsstands on Saturday 29 June (it is advisable to reserve a copy from your trusted newsagent).
Among the 168 pages of our book – edited by the editor-in-chief of Repubblica Bari, Domenico Castellanetaand with the editorial coordination of the writer – a 360 degree journey awaits readers. The volume offers a 360 degree journey into the world of underground Puglia, from the naturalistic caves – starting with the Castellana Caves, but not only – up to the signs of the millenary civilization of man who inhabited the stone: from the Deer Cave of Porto Badisco to the places of the rocky and underground habitat.
The book also talks about the treasures that remained trapped in underground Puglia, and this is the case of the Man of Altamura as well as that which emerged from underground Puglia. And this is the circumstance of the extraordinary heritage of dinosaur footprints which, not only in the Pontrelli quarry of Altamura, tell another page of history yet to be discovered, of our land.
Among the pages of the volume La Puglia sotterranea, the signatures of Repubblica journalists, such as that of Anna Puricella who interviewed the geologist and science communicator Mario Tozzi which underlines how “the bowels of Puglia narrate the thousand-year history of man”; you hate Antonella W. Gaeta which tells of the great beauty of the Castellana Caves between the cinema and their having become the stage for cultural events.
Or even the internationally renowned paleoanthropologist Giorgio Manzi which explains to us the extraordinary nature of the discovery of the Altamura Man while, to reveal the uniqueness of the Castellana Caves, it is Mario Parisegeologist from UniBa, author with Umberto D’Ettorre of a journey which, from Gargano to Salento, shows the breathtaking charm of underground Puglia through the other tourist caves in the region.
“In the caves along the coast, Man encountered the sacred” is the title of the fascinating journey through the caves, made sacred by man throughout history, tackled by the archaeologist Giuliano Volpe while the colleague Francesco D’Andriaan archaeologist already in the chair at UniSalento, is concerned with telling the myth of Persistence in the caves of Salento.
And again, among others: the historian Sergio Chiaffarata Iannelli he reconstructs the mysterious street of the hypogea in the Land of Bari. Just as he is the art historian Maurizio Triggiani to lead readers to discover the hidden signs of history: the frescoes of the rock churches.
And finally, he is the paleontologist geologist Marco Petruzzellto take us into prehistoric Puglia through the extraordinary heritage, still to be exploited, of the deposits of dinosaur footprints.
