Castello Monaci

The Castello Monaci stands in the flat Apulian countryside near Salice Salentino, a 16th-century castle whose walls stretch across the borders of three provinces. The building sits closer to San Pancrazio Salentino but belongs entirely to Salice Salentino. Its foundations rest on land once used by Basilian monks fleeing Byzantine persecution in the 10th and 11th centuries. The castle began as a refuge for those monks, who carved caves and altars into the soft rock around Torrevecchia and nearby districts. A small church dedicated to Saint Pancras is recorded in a 1063 deed, built with their help. By the 16th century the site became a fortress, later home to noble families such as the Martinos, Parrys and Graingers. In the 19th century a new façade was added, turning part of the castle into event halls, a winery and a wine museum. Visitors walk through vaulted rooms where monks once prayed and find frescoed grottoes with Byzantine-style saints. Outside, the vineyards of Salice Salentino stretch to the horizon, supplying grapes for the winery inside the castle walls. The surrounding fields show traces of the monks’ hermitages and the rock-cut churches they built.