Apulia / Caves

Posted by

23/04/2019

On 23/04/2019

The sites of underground caves and sea caves are
numerous in Apulia.

The sea caves are found along the coasts of the Gargano, in Vieste and Mattinata, and along the coasts of the Adriatic, in the Salento.

The most important underground caves are the Castellana Caves (Photo Gallery), a remarkable karst cave system located in the municipality of Castellana Grotte, in south-eastern Murge. The Castellana Caves began to form about 100 million years age.

The cavities, located at a depth of about 60 meters, extend for a length of 3 km. The Grave (large chasm) is the natural entrance. Followed by galleries and caves full of stalagmites and stalactites with imaginative names that summarize their particular appearance, such as White Cave, Cave of the Capitoline Wolf, Cavernone (Great Cave) of Monuments, Sock, Cave of the Owl, Corridor of the Serpent, Cave of the Precipice, Little Paradise, Grand Canyon, Tower of Pisa Cave, Pond, Red Corridor, Dome Cave, Crystal Pond, White Cave.

Since march 2011, the natural environment of the caves is used as scenario to perform a show entitled “Hell in the Cave”, based on Dante’s Inferno; it has a major multimedia exhibition, able to embrace the entire natural environment as a performance space where the dynamics of innovative theater will capture the public to take him into an extraordinary adventure in Dante’s Inferno.
It is the only aerial subterranean show in the world, where a cast of 50 Puglia players perform, dance and “fly” in a phantasmagoric mix of lights and colors, among the rocks of the Caverna Bianca. The show is seen by more than 15.000 persons every year.

Photos (from top to bottom)
1. Marine cave (Vieste, Gargano)
2. Caves of Castellana (BA)
3. Hell in the Cave show in the Castellana Caves
(Photos 2. and 3. from the official site of the Caves of Castellana)