| Many people have always came to this sanctuary, not only from Manduria, but also from the near towns, especially when plentiful rains or long dry spells threat to compromise the vintage or the harvest. In these circumstances thousands of farmers poured during the night into the near country sides. In the morning they make the chaplain of the sanctuary take an old painting which portrays St. Peter, who is venerated here. Then, they see the painting off at Manduria, creating a long, quaint procession during which everyone carries on the shoulders heavy stones or big logs in sign of penance.
The early sanctuary of St. Peter in Bevagna was built in remote times in the same place where , according to an ancient tradition, the Apostle Peter celebrated the divine sacrifice, once he had landed in 42 or 45 A.C. together with two Apostles,Andrew and Mark.On the portal of the church it is carved an ancient Latin inscription, translated from Hebrew by the priest of Manduria Matteo Del Prete. This inscription told to pilgrims:
“Petrus, Adreas et Marcus in nominee Christi sunt huius temple factores firmiter histi. Qui huc accedit acquiret proemia tanta quanta sunt Romae pedes et cinere sancta”.
It reminded pilgrims the tradition of the built of the church ,started by the Apostles themselves. It also reminded the indulgences by which Popes have enriched this sanctuary during the time. This church was ruined many times, and many times it was rebuilt. During the Middle Ages it belonged to the Basilani family, then to the bishops of Oria. In the XI century Godino, bishop of Oria, gave it and other goods to Benedectines from the convent of St. Laurence in Anversa, who make it a 'grancia' and officiated the church until the beginning of ‘800, when the sanctuary was regained possession by the bishops of Oria.
The attention that pirates paid to the rich areas of the South of Italy caused in every age the need for defences against hazards from the sea and from inland raids. Puglia in particular was in need of these defences, because it was always object of repeated and sanguinary sacks, due to his geographical position and to the fact that its coasts lack natural defences. In 1220 Federico II ordered Torre di Leverano, Leverano tower, to be built in order to stop corsair landings in Porto Cesareo and the consequents sacks. In 1230 he had already ordered Torre della serpe, The Tower of the snake, in the South of Otranto, to be restored. In 1301 Torre del Cavallo, The tower of the Horse, was built in Brindisi for the will of Carlo II d’Angiò, while the Torre di S.Cataldo, St.Cataldo’s tower, a few km far from Lecce, was raised in 1485. In the XVI century, when the piratical incursions increased, a planning of the coast defence was decided and entrusted to Universities of Puglia by the government of the viceroy Don Pietro Da Toledo in 1532-33.
Owned by the commune, it raises in the main square of the homonymous centre, a little withdrawn if compared to the shore. Its built is not surely dated: according to Coco it was raised in the end of XV century, whereas Faglia in his census taken in 1978 dates it back to 1575; it is sure that in 1578 it was bought by the Royal Court for 807 ducats. Torre S.Pietro is typically shaped as a “priest’s hat” with a tore which divides the scarp-wall from the level wall; it is also provided with a crossed-shooting arquebusier. At the beginning of ‘900, a church has been leaned against the North side of the tower , and lately a sacristy truncated –pyramidal in shape against the west side. Through the apse of the church, wedged in the base, it is possible to enter a crypt, which is likely considered the cistern by authors like Faglia and Caprara, meanwhile the tradition regarded it as a holy Christian place of the origins. |