Gravina di Larerza: The canyon carved by time in the heart of Puglia
About 40 km from Taranto Cruise Port lies the Gravina di Laterza. It is one of the deepest canyons in Europe: 12 km of sheer limestone cliffs, up to 400 metres wide and over 200 metres deep.
It was carved out by the River Lato over two million years ago, metre by metre through the calcarenite, until it created breathtaking vertical walls. On those walls, between the 7th and 9th centuries, Basilian monks carved more than thirty churches directly into the living rock.
They had fled the Eastern Empire during the iconoclastic persecutions. They were looking for a place remote enough to render them invisible. They found this canyon and remained there for centuries. Altars, frescoes, necropolises: a city of stone within stone, carved into the calcarenite.
La Gravina is not just medieval history. It has been a protected area since 1984 and a LIPU nature reserve since 1999. The Egyptian vulture, one of Europe’s rarest and most endangered vultures, nests here. The walls of the Gravina are among the last Italian refuges for this species. During the breeding season, access is restricted, not for bureaucratic reasons but to protect something that is truly disappearing.
