Torre Guaceto Nature Reserve
A few kilometres from the city, the Torre Guaceto Nature Reserve is one of the last stretches of Adriatic coast left intact: Mediterranean scrub, wetlands and one of the richest marine reserves in the Mediterranean.
A watchtower
The name Guaceto probably comes from the Arabic wādī, a ford, recalling age-old routes. The tower crowning the headland is a 16th-century coastal tower, built by the Aragonese to spot Ottoman raids: one of the many stone eyes that dot the Apulian coast.
A thousand hectares of nature
The reserve embraces over a thousand hectares of sea and land: fragrant scrub, wetlands where flamingos are mirrored, meadows of Posidonia oceanica that turn the sea emerald green. Local fishermen have learned to protect it rather than exploit it. Those underwater meadows are ancient organisms (some thousands of years old, contemporaries of the Messapians) and keep the water clear.
Where it is
Sentiero Riserva Naturale Torre Guaceto