Specchia

Going down along Salento's coast, approximately at the same height of Tricase, a short detour (6km) towards the interior leads us to Specchia, a nice and very well maintained historic centre. In the main square the Risolo castle is a fortified building with a XVI century structure, which initially was isolated and was then incorporated in later buildings. Two high square donjons emerge on the corners of the ancient quadrangular structure.
The elegant east façade overlooking the square, with a long balcony at the first floor and the huge bossed portal, is part of the XVI and XVII century transformations from castle to baronial urban mansion. Left of the façade the main street goes down, still today named "rua", probably a memory of the XIV century domination by Angiò, overlooked by elegant mansions. However the most suggestive portion of the town is the one at the rear of the castle, with flights of steps and short and narrow roads, alleys and courtyards. Of the ancient walls only a few fragments are left on the west side of the town. Some nice churches realised between XVI and XIX century, always in the warm local limestone, enrich the townscape with their Baroque decorations.