Cisternino

Cisternino is an Italian town in Puglia ( province of Brindisi). It is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

Overview

Cisternino with 11,678 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2012) is located at the southeast end of the Murgia landscape. The neighboring municipalities are Fasano, Locorotondo (BA ), Martina Franca ( TA) and Ostuni. Districts ( frazioni ) are: Caranna, Casalini, Marinelli and Sisto. The distance to the southeastern province of Brindisi capital is about 50 km.

The predominantly agricultural community mainly produces olives and grapes - it belongs to the wine region of Salento and is located in the Valle d' Itria, known for its trulli.

Mayor Donato is Baccaro.

History

Finds prove that the area was settled around Cisternino already in the Paleolithic. The city itself is probably one of the founding Messapians that were located in the Salento before the Greeks and Romans. Even before the Punic Wars, the city came under the name Sturnimum under Roman rule.

The name Cisturninum first appeared in 1180 in a papal bull of Pope Alexander III. to the Bishop of Monopoli on. The following centuries were parallel to the history of Puglia and the Kingdom of Naples. They constantly brought changing, usually foreign gentlemen with him, including the Normans (11th - 12th century), the Staufer (12th - 13th century), the houses of Anjou ( 13th - 15th century) and Aragón ( 15th - early 18th century), the Habsburgs (18th century ), and - with the Napoleonic interruption - the Bourbons ( 18th-19th century).. In the course of Italian freedom struggle was in 1861 with the founding of the Kingdom of Italy the foreign rule be shaken off after many centuries.

Sister City

The city received in 2000 with the Swiss city of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau, a town twinning.

Personalities

• Martino Scarafile (1927-2011), Roman Catholic Bishop of Castellaneta