Sava is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

province of Taranto The province of Taranto (; Tarantino: ; Salentino: ), previously known as the province of the Ionian, is a province in the Apulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Taranto. It has an area of , and a total population of 581,092 (2017). ...

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

, southeast

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. With its 19000 inhabitants, is one of the biggest town in the province. It is a center of production of olive oil and of the wine

Primitivo Zinfandel (also known as Primitivo) is a variety of black-skinned wine grape. The variety is grown in over 10 percent of California vineyards. DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grapes Crljenak Kašte ...

. The nearby ''comuni'' are Maruggio, Torricella, Lizzano, Fragagnano, San Marzano di San Giuseppe,

Francavilla Fontana Francavilla Fontana ( Francavillese: ) is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Brindisi and region of Apulia, in southern Italy. It is also called the town of the "Imperiali", after the Imperiali, a family of feudal lords who ...

and

Manduria Manduria is a city and ''comune'' of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Taranto. With c. 32,000 inhabitants (2013), it is located east of Taranto. Etymology The name ''Manduria'' is thought to derive from a Proto-Indo-European stem ''*mond- ...

. The main monuments of the city are the Mother Church, the Palazzo Baronale, the Mater Domini's Church, the Monastery's Church, the San Cosimo's Church and San Luigi's Church.

History

Some of the finds of the district of Agliano, dating from around 300 BC, attest to the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

presence in the present territory of Sava. It was probably the last outpost towards the southern

Salento Salento (; Salentino dialect, Salentino: ''Salentu''; Griko language, Salento Griko: ) is a Cultural area, cultural, List of historical states of Italy, historical, and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apuli ...

, populated by

Messapi The Messapians were an Iapygian tribe who inhabited Salento in classical antiquity. Two other Iapygian tribes, the Peucetians and the Daunians, inhabited central and northern Apulia respectively. All three tribes spoke the Messapian language, ...

. At the end of the 7th century AD, with the division of the Apulia region between Byzantines and

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

, a wall built in dry limestone of modest size was built here. This ''

limes Limes may refer to: * ''Limes'' (Roman Empire), a border marker and defense system of the Roman Empire * ''Limes'' (Italian magazine), an Italian geopolitical magazine * ''Limes'' (Romanian magazine), a Romanian literary and political quarterly ma ...

'' ran from the Adriatic coast south of Brindisi up to the Ionian coast. Although there are no documents proving the origins of the village of Sava, the majority of local historians agree that its foundation dates from the 15th century. Sava, as the neighboring municipalities, has been characterized for most of the 20th century by emigration to northern Italy and, to a lesser extent, toward northern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. On 19 August 1976 a powerful

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

struck the city of Sava and the surrounding countryside, until exhausting near

; its passage led to intense rainfall and strong winds that caused extensive damage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sava (Ta) Cities and towns in Apulia Localities of Salento