Vico del Gargano

Vico del Gargano in Apulia (until 1862 called Vico) is nicknamed the ‘country of love’. Its hamlet San Menaio is a popular seaside resort. The municipal territory has a pronounced altimetrical range (from 0 to 782 m above sea level), from the submontane heights of the Foresta Umbra to the beaches of San Menaio and Calenella.

The landscape in the interior is typical of beech and fir forests, along the coast there are aleppo pine forests (Pineta Marzini). Centuries-old olive groves and agrumaie are spread out through spectacular terracing on the coast. Vico del Gargano forms the heart of the Gargano National Park, encompassing most of the Foresta Umbra in its territory.

With an elevation profile ranging from sea level to the 800 metres of the Foresta Umbra, the territory of Vico del Gargano presents a very ancient geomorphological formation: interglacial Riss in the hilly part and probably Würmian in the Calenella plain. In these landscapes, rich in water and greenery, prehistoric and protohistoric communities settled, of which significant traces remain. Interesting evidence of the Palaeolithic has emerged in Foresta Umbra and Macchia di Mare, of the Neolithic at Coppa Cardone and traces of the Eneolithic at Macchia di Mare. From the Iron Age is the rock necropolis of Monte Tabor and from the early Christian period is the necropolis of Monte Pucci.

Historiographical tradition dates the origins of Vico back to around 970 when Sueripolo, leader of the Slavonians, driven out on behalf of the Byzantines (others, however, lean towards Emperor Otto I of Germany), the Saracens from the Gargano, obtained permission to settle in the liberated lands together with his people. Sueripolo thus united a number of hamlets within defensive walls, giving rise to a first urban core: the ‘Civitas’, which would later be called Vicus and then Vico. In the 11th century, the Normans also conquered the Gargano lands, where they built fortresses and defence walls.

In Vico, too, they built a first fortress, a castle that was later enlarged and modified by Emperor Frederick II of Swabia. The castle (Castrum Vici) and the Mother Church are the polarising elements around which the medieval settlement developed. During this period, Vico was part of the Gentile family's county of Lesina. In 1266 the Angevins invaded the south and in 1270 the Gargano fiefs were divided up as follows: the Casale of Sfilzi was entrusted to Bernardo Stefano de Bacciniaco, while the ‘castri’ of Vico, Ischitella and Canneto to Raimondo Isardo, fiefs that were also confirmed to his heirs. In 1292/1293, Teodisco de Cuneo was assigned all the fiefs, namely those of Vico, Ischitella, Canneto and Sfilzi.

In the 14th century, the lands of Vico were assigned to the Borgariello family. In the war between the Angevins and the Aragons, Ettore Borgariello having held for the vanquished Angevins was deprived of the fief by King Alfonso. In 1495 Ferdinand II of Aragon gave the fief of Vico to Galeazzo Caracciolo, a Neapolitan nobleman, who had distinguished himself in 1480 in Otranto against the Turks.

Colantonio Caracciolo, Galeazzo's heir, is the first Marquis of Vico by the will of Charles V of Spain. But his fortunes came to a sudden halt. His son, Galeazzo II, converts to Calvinism and becomes a follower of Calvin in Geneva. Colantonio did not lose heart and went to Spain to obtain from the emperor that his fiefs should not be confiscated from his nephews because of his father.

The church and Capuchin monastery, which Colantonio had built in 1566, were intended to bear witness to the Catholic faith of a feudal lord in crisis because of his son's Calvinist choice. At the end of the 16th century, Vico was one of the most populous centres of the Promontory with 2000 (and more) inhabitants. The urban fabric expanded in the area of Terra or Borgo Vecchio, which housed the burgenses (small land or house owners) and in the area of Casale, where the rustici (farm labourers) were housed.

The first mention of the castle is in the Regestro di San Leonardo di Siponto and refers to a document from 1113. In the 17th century, the Seignory passed to the Spinelli family, and it was during this period that a large Illyrian colony arrived in Vico, mainly consisting of merchant-craftsmen dedicated to weaving and the cloth trade.

The 18th century was characterised by a remarkable cultural awakening that led to the foundation of a coterie of intellectuals: the Accademia degli Eccitati. In the meantime, the Vichese economy underwent great development, thanks to the renewed cultivation of citrus fruits. In 1792, the Monumental Cemetery of San Pietro on Mount Tabor was built, the third in Italy outside the city walls, a forerunner of the Napoleonic edict of Saint Cloud in 1806.

After Garibaldi's feat, Vico followed the events and fate of the entire South unified in the Kingdom of Italy. Today, the town has a typical appearance of the art of the early Middle Ages: in fact, the Castle, the Cinta Muraria and some churches date back to this period. Vico has always shown a particular predisposition for faith, testified to by the presence of urban and suburban churches, convents, votive chapels, a substantial number for a provincial agricultural centre.

The Walls
Vico is also characterised by an imposing city wall that surrounds the entire historic centre. In 1292, Teodisco de Cuneo, a master of crossbowmen and man-at-arms, provided Vico with a superb boundary wall garnished with about twenty circular and quadrangular towers. It was forbidden to create openings in the walls, but only slits were allowed for defence purposes. Later, the so-called Palazzo Caracciolo was added to the walls, which is located next to the Church of San Martino: it is all crenellated and has symmetrically arranged windows. The traces of the mediaeval walls are well imprinted in the urban layout, while the remaining towers, many of which were used as dwellings (tower-houses), number thirteen, including the Trusciglia, the Salt Tower, the Piccolo Tower, the Fuliciazzo Tower and others.

The Trappeti
The trappeti were the places where oil was produced. At that time, the trappeti were built below street level because of the need to have warm rooms, with a constant temperature of around 14 degrees, to facilitate the decantation of the oil from the vegetation water. The main trappeto in Vico del Gargano was the ‘Trappeto Maratea’, now a museum. A document from 1317 (archives of Foggia) attests to the presence of this underground trappeto: ‘trappetum terrae Vici apud castellum’.

It is located at the entrance to the medieval village, behind the Frederician castle in the Casale district. In the oil mill (from the Latin frangere, to crush, to hull into pieces) or trappeto (from the gr. trapeo, to crush) there is a large stone basin with two rock wheels, four wooden presses arranged in niches carved into the rock, a swallowing hole for the disposal of sludge water and an underground cistern for the collection of oil. The olives were reduced to a paste by the millstones, then this mixture was poured onto the superimposed ‘friscole’, and the total pressing of the olives was obtained, from which oil and water came out and were collected in oak vats placed at the foot of the presses.

Then, after the subsequent separation by decantation of the oil from the water, the oil was recovered and stored in stone cisterns. A new room, probably a church, is thought to have been added to the Trappeto Maratea after a few centuries. In fact, there are some architectural elements such as an epigraph and three arches that also suggest a place of worship.