The Dolmen La Chianca and the Santa Croce Caves: Bisceglie Exploration

From the ancient Posta Santa Croce walking along the roads of transhumance in Puglia, an unprecedented path between the Murgia and the Adriatic in a very little known place despite the proximity to the urban centers of Bisceglie and 2

Corato. A little off the beaten path and extremely interesting for the landscape and historical relevance it includes. On our way we will immediately find the Dolmen La Chianca, a prehistoric megalithic tomb from the Bronze Age.

Crossing one of the typical blades of this area we will reach a vast complex of karst origin characterized by the presence of caves where in 1955 a femur belonging to an adult individual of Homo sapiens neandertalensis was found.

There have been found evidence of human presence from the Middle Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. Numerous primitive animal remains, stone tools and Neolithic paintings were also found in 1955.

Remained in a complete state of neglect and neglect, the caves have been revalued by the Scout Group of Bisceglie since 1975 and made accessible to the public since 1990, with the approval and collaboration of the Municipality of Bisceglie and the Archaeological Superintendence of Puglia. In 1997 the University of Siena was also involved in several excavations that brought to light a Neolithic mat.

Finally reopened after the execution of static consolidation works carried out in autumn 2021.

Coasting the sea with a fantastic coastline full of sea caves that were inhabited since the Neolithic period, as attested by the materials found by Majellaro and Prelorenzo. We will discover the Caves of Ripalta. Along this stretch of the Via Francigena you can also admire the typical Apulian rural landscape with its dry stone walls, straw huts and small houses. We will continue on a short stretch of pebble beach, and then through a fantastic meadow of spontaneous orchids we will be able to reach the coves, small bays created by the blades, erosive furrows typical of the Apulian landscape, which convey the rainwater from the Murge karst plateau towards the Adriatic Sea.