The territory of Mottola began to be populated by indigenous peoples from the Bronze Age (12th -10th century BC), while the Japigi settled in the Iron Age. Since 207 B.C. it has been conquered by the Romans and then, in the middle ages by the Goths, the Byzantines, the Lombards, the Saracens and, from about 1040, the Normans, the Swabians and the Angevins.

From the original Byzantine fortification dating back to 1023 what remains today is a tower incorporated into the buildings near the church of Santa Maria Immacolata.

The historical route leads to the MEGALITHIC WALLS and then continues to the MOTHER CHURCH, whose period of construction is unknown, but certainly the rose window is Romanesque. The inscription on the portal attests to its extension in 1507.

The great statue of Saint Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury and the patron saint of the city dates to the eighteenth-century. The painting of the Last Supper is exquisite. The bell tower, declared a national monument in 1890, dates back to the 14th-15th century. You then visit the circular Byzantine Tower made from calcareous stone, with earthy mortar that preserves the waters of an ancient well.

You can visit the ROCK CHURCHES AND CRYPTS, the most important ones of which are located at the Masseria Casalrotto where there are the remains of an ancient Benedictine Abbey. Among the other churches we remember that of the Madonna delle Sette Lampade, that of San Gregorio, Sant’Angelo, Santa Margherita and San Nicola.

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