250px, A view of the castle.
Acaya is a small village, a community, in the
province of Lecce and region of
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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, in southern
Italy.
Description
The heart of the settlement is a good example of the few fortified villages left in Apulia, and its layout was planned to optimize defense and survival capabilities. The street pattern dates back at least to the 16th century and divides the village into rectangular ''insulae'', or islands. The centre consists of six streets laid out in a regular pattern, parallel with each other and running roughly from north to south, all with a width of four meters, all but one some seventeen meters apart, and almost all having the same length. From east to west, three streets run at right-angles to the six north–south streets, one each at their south and north ends and one across the middle, making all of the streets
orthogonal
In mathematics, orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of ''perpendicularity''.
By extension, orthogonality is also used to refer to the separation of specific features of a system. The term also has specialized meanings in ...
. The important buildings, such as the castle and the church, are built outside this grid of streets, the castle standing a little way off to the south-west.
The village lies some five kilometers from the
Adriatic Sea and the
Cesine
Le Cesine is a wetland and natural state reserve extending for 380 hectares near Lecce, in southern Italy. It has been recognized as one of the Ramsar wetland sites of international importance in 1977, and a state nature reserve and a special prot ...
public nature reserve (''Riserva naturale statale Le Cesine'').
Main sights
*
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
built by
Gian Giacomo of Acaya
Gian is a masculine Italian given name. It is a variant of Gianni and is likewise used as a diminutive of Giovanni, the Italian form of John.
In Italian, any name including Giovanni can be contracted to Gian, particularly in combination with othe ...
in 1535–1536. The trapezoidal
Renaissance fortress, is a trace of the
Arragon period
The Kingdom of Aragon ( an, Reino d'Aragón, ca, Regne d'Aragó, la, Regnum Aragoniae, es, Reino de Aragón) was a medieval and early modern kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, ...
.
* Fortified citadel
* Church of Santa Maria della Neve
* Chapel of San Paolo constructed in the 18th century.
Modern buildings
* Double Tree built a five star resort which includes an 18-hole golf club.
Further reading
* Luciano Graziuso (1979). ''Vernole e frazioni''. Capone editore.
* Mario Cazzato, Antonio Costantini. (1990). ''Guida di Acaya''. Capone editore.
* Antonio Monte, ''Acaya: Una citta-fortezza del Rinascimento meridionale (Tesori di Puglia),'' (1996)
* Antonio Fasiello ''Cronaca della Taranta, Il Tarantismo in Acaya'' (2005). Mancarella editore.
* Rossella Barletta ''Acaya. Borgo, castello, dintorni'' (2010). Edizioni del Grifo.
External links
Frazioni of the Province of Lecce
Cities and towns in Apulia
Castles in Italy
Italian states
{{Puglia-geo-stub
