POI data

General information
The Megalithic Garden
Settlement of cultural or religious importance
no
The Giurdignano area has a large number of heritage sites; it has eighteen menhirs, or megaliths, for the most part in the shape of a parallelepiped, standing in the earth or in the natural rock bank. These monuments have attracted the attention of numerous European scholars since the 19th century, they were thought to be prehistoric and part of some kind of cult or form of worship. Whatever their origin we know that they were later adopted by Christianity and used as a way of marking a meeting place through the positioning of a metal cross on them or engraving religious motifs. The best example of this is the Saint Paul (San Paolo) menhir, on the outskirts of the town of Giurdignano. Under this menhir there is a niche carved out of the rock holding a fresco in which Saint Paul and a tarantula are depicted, the tarantula has a strong magical/religious importance in this area. Dolmens are the megalithic structures made up of one or more horizontal slabs placed on vertical slabs. These prehistoric monuments had a mainly funerary use and generally had a mound of earth either next to them or on top of them. In the Giurdignano area there are seven dolmens still standing, in the olive groves surrounding the town. The most interesting of these is most certainly the Stabile dolmen, made up of a large limestone slab held up by three large stones and some smaller stones. According to local tradition it is an altar (this is evidently implied by its shape).
Location
Giurdignano
73020
Italy
Puglia
40.1246
18.4239
72.10
Contact
Centro Informazioni Turistiche
Additional information
Good
Unlimited visit
Good
High
International
Good
Cultural tourism
Archaeological,cultural monument