Gargano0001

Gargano (, Gargano Apulian Italo-Romance arˈgæːnə is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of the Gargano Promontory projecting into the Adriatic Sea, the "spur" on the Italian "boot". The high point is Monte Calvo at . Most of the upland area, about , is part of the Gargano National Park, founded in 1991. In this region since 1978 a feud has been fought between the clans of the Società foggiana.

The Gargano peninsula is partly covered by the remains of an ancient forest, ''Foresta Umbra'', the only remaining part in Italy of the ancient oak and beech forest that once covered much of Central Europe as well as the Apennine deciduous montane forests ecoregion. The Latin poet Horace spoke of the oaks of ''Garganus'' in '' Ode'' II, ix.

Tourism

The coast of Gargano houses numerous beaches and tourist facilities, including resorts such as Vieste, Peschici and Mattinata. The two major salt lakes of Lesina and Varano are located in the northern part of the peninsula. Gargano is the site of the oldest shrine in Western Europe dedicated to the archangel Michael, Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano.

Other tourist attractions include San Giovanni Rotondo, the Abbey of Santa Maria of Ripalta (Lesina) and the volcanic rocks, dating back to the Triassic Period, known as "Black Stones" in Lesina, as well as the Sanctuary of San Nazario.

Annual events

* St Primiano and the saint sailing-race on 15 May
* St Nazario and the pilgrimage to the Sanctuary with the same name on July 28
* St Rocco's Day on 15, 16 and 17 August in Rignano Garganico
*Procession of the
Fracchie
' on Good Friday in San Marco in Lamis
* Saint Valentine's day in Vico del Gargano
*Pilgrimages (
cumpagnie
') to the shrine of San Michele Arcangelo in Monte Sant'Angelo on May 8 and September 29
*Gargano Running Week is held in October, the first time in 2014 and includes trail running, skyrunning, jogging, ultra distance running and speed running. The 10 K and the half marathon are supervised by FIDAL.

Gargano Peninsula fossils

Some 12 to 4 million years ago, during the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene, a highly endemic vertebrate fauna evolved on what was then Gargano Island due to higher sea levels than today. Several of these animals were subject to island gigantism.

The fossils are found in partially infilled paleokarst fissures across Monte Gargano. The Gargano Island fauna is known as '' Mikrotia'' fauna after an endemic rodent genus of the area. Initially named ''Microtia'', this had to be corrected, because the genus name '' Microtia'' was already used for butterflies.

The surface features of the ancient karst developed in Mesozoic limestone. In these, sediment accumulated together with the remains of the local fauna, forming thick layers of reddish, massive or crudely stratified silty- sandy clays, known as ''terrae rossae'' ("red soils"). Through the mid- Pliocene, some of these deposits were flooded, probably due to tectonic movement of the Apulian Plate. Others were overlaid by other sediments of terrestrial or freshwater origin. In this way a buried, partially reworked paleokarst originated.

Later, as the ice ages cycle got underway, sea levels sank and the former island was continentalized. In the cool and semiarid conditions of the Early Pleistocene (some 1.8–0.8 mya) a second karstic cycle occurred, producing the neokarst which removed part of the paleokarst fill.

Fauna

The Gargano Island endemic mammals included:
* ''Deinogalerix'' - 5 species of gymnures ("hairy hedgehogs"), among them the giant ''D. koenigswaldi'' with a skull of c.20 cm length. (Freudenthal, 1972; Butler, 1980)
* ''Hoplitomeryx'' - some 5 species of "prongdeer" with five horns and sabre-like upper canine teeth. They ranged from tiny to the size of a red deer, and large and small ones apparently occurred at the same time rather than one evolving from the other. (Leinders 1984, van der Geer 2005, van der Geer 2008)
* ''Mikrotia'' - 3 or more species of murine rodent. The largest species, ''M. magna'', had a skull 10 cm long. (Freudenthal, 1976, Parra ''et al.'', 1999)
* ''Paralutra garganensis'' - an endemic species of otter. (Willemsen, 1983)
* '' Prolagus imperialis'' and ''P. apricenicus'' - huge endemic pika species- ''P. imperialis'' was larger than any other known ''Prolagus''.(Mazza, 1987)
* ''Stertomys'' - 5 species of dormouse, among them the giant ''S. laticrestatus'' (Daams and Freudenthal, 1985) and four smaller species (Freudenthal and Martín-Suárez, 2006)
* ''Hattomys'' - 3 species of giant hamsters, among them the giant ''H. gargantua''. (Freudenthal, 1985)

Non-endemic mammals found on the island included:
* '' Apodemus gorafensis'' - a field mouse
* A prehistoric species of '' Cricetus'' hamster (Freudenthal, 1985)
* ''Megacricetodon'' - another hamster (Freudenthal, 1985)

Bird species occurring at Gargano included (studied by Ballmann, 1973, 1976):
* ''Apus wetmorei'', a swift.
* ''Columba omnisanctorum'' - one of the oldest pigeon fossils known. It probably was more widespread and if so, the older name ''C. pisana'' would likely apply to it.
* ''Garganoaetus freudenthali'' and ''Garganoaetus murivorus'' - two species of falconid, the former larger than a golden eagle, the latter well-sized; endemic. The smaller species, which likely is the stratigraphically oldest, is closely related to ''Aquila delphinensis'' from La Grive-Saint-Alban, France, according to Peter Ballmann in 1973. Its closest living relatives are the small eagles ('' Hieraaetus'', '' Spizaetus'', ''Lophaetus'').
* ''Garganornis ballmanni'', an extinct flightless giant goose-like waterfowl
* ''"Strix" perpasta'' - a true owl, perhaps the same as the widespread ''Bubo zeylonensis lamarmorae'', a paleosubspecies of the brown fish-owl (Mlíkovský 2002) but this taxon was usually known from later times.
* '' Tyto'' - 2 or 3 species of barn-owls. The largest, '' T. gigantea'', was up to twice as massive as the living eagle-owl ''Bubo bubo''. '' T. robusta'' was also large; this species and the former were endemic but actually seem to have been chronosubspecies. The supposed remains of the smaller ''T. sanctialbani'' found at Gargano are now placed in the widespread ''Tyto balearica''.
* an indeterminate woodpecker.

Languages

According to Pellegrini, Gargano is home t
area IIIb
of Southern Italo-Romance varieties. Each town, in turn, speaks its own sub-variety. Th
Candeloro (or ''Candelaro'' in Italian)
river defines the boundaries of the promontory as well as the borders with area IIb (that of Foggiano varieties).

See also

* Daunia
* Tavoliere delle Puglie
*Apulia
*Garganica, the local breed of goat
* Trabucco a giant fishing machine belonging to Gargano tradition
*1627 Gargano earthquake

References

Sources

* Butler, M., 1980. The giant erinaceid insectivore, Deinogalerix Freudenthal, from the upper Miocene of Gargano, Italy. Scripta Geologica 57, 1-72.
* Daams, R., Freudenthal, M. (1985): "''Stertomys laticrestatus'', a new glirid (dormice, Rodentia) from the insular fauna of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)." '' Scripta Geologica'' 77: 21–27

(includes full text PDF)
* Freudenthal, M. (1972): "''Deinogalerix koenigswaldi'' nov. gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy." '' Scripta Geologica'' 14: 1-1

includes full text PDF)
* Freudenthal, M. (1976): "Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy)". '' Scripta Geologica'' 37: 1-2

(includes full text PDF)
* Freudenthal, M. (1985) "Cricetidae (Rodentia) from the Neogene of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)". '' Scripta Geologica'' 77: 29-76

(includes full text PDF)
* Freudenthal, M., Martín-Suárez, E. (2006): "Gliridae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Late Miocene Fissure Filling Biancone 1 (Gargano, Province of Foggia, Italy)." ''Palaeontologia Electronica'' 9.2.6A: 1-23.
* Leinders, J.J.M. (1984): "Hoplitomerycidae fam. nov. (Ruminantia, Mammalia) from Neogene fissure fillings in Gargano (Italy); part 1: The cranial osteology of Hoplitomeryx gen. nov. and a discussion on the classification of pecoran families". '' Scripta Geologica'' 70: 1-51, 9 plates.
*
* Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): ''Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe'': 215. Ninox Press, Prague. PDF fulltext
!-- This should be treated with extreme caution as regards merging of species. Splits are usually good though. See also critical review in Auk121:623-627 here http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200404/ai_n9396879 -->
* Parra, V.; Loreau, M. & Jaeger, J.-J. (1999): "Incisor size and community structure in rodents: two tests of the role of competition". ''Acta Oecologica'' 20(2): 93-101. (HTML abstract)
*
*
* (includes full text PDF)

External links

Official Tourism InformationPictures from the Gargano and Vieste

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gargano
Peninsulas of Italy
Geographical, historical and cultural regions of Italy
Mountains of Apulia
Former islands of Italy
Peaks dedicated to Michael (archangel)
Michael (archangel)