Sentinelle di pietra. Le torri costiere di Porto Cesareo

Under the kingdom of Charles the Fifth, also the Salento coast was interested by the imposing defensive system based on 80 watchtowers, aimed at stemming the raids coming from the sea. In despite of their glorious history, many towers have been abandoned, becoming true ruins. The paper presents an articulated programme of various initiatives and projects, the majority of whom born in a bottom-up way, with the involvement of the local community, the institutional or not actors and the stakeholders; the programme is aimed at the 360 degrees valorization of the rich environmental and cultural, historical and archaeological, especially submerged or semi-submerged, assets of these “seascapes”.