SIOS AVAPA (Massimo Maggioni) 
THE CROSS TO THE CRYPT UGENTO
Ugento Leaving from the town and along the route to the altitude of release Casarano Melissa find a rock church recently reopened to the public after a long period of restoration.
The crypt below the church with the call of the Cross (the Crucifix) is one of many rock-hewn churches of Salento.
Monks Basilian Rite greek, arrived in Salento since the year 726 AD when Emperor Leo III Isaurico promulgated the edict against the worship of sacred images (iconoclasm), the Eastern Roman Empire;
The churches stood mostly rock or along the old lines of communication (eg via sallentina Trajan), or from old rural settlements of the late Roman era escaped the ravages of wars Byzantine Gothic.
The hermit monks settled in the ancient underground caves and Greeks who celebrated the rites persisted in our area, with ups and downs, until the XV-XVI century.
During monachesimoi Italian greek spread, especially in the eleventh-twelfth century, the use of paint the walls of caves turned into places of worship, sacred images of saints and inscriptions with features Byzantine greek.
The crypt of the cross is then near an ancient settlement late Roman rural living in an area like that of Ugento that has its origins far from the archaic Messapi.
Let's see some 'more closely at what gives us the interesting crypt
say first that it contains evidence dating from different historical eras: the current main entrance it can be traced back to 1500, much elegant and classic architectural profiles. To his left at about one meter from the ground a pietraforse from different locations, has an inscription engraved in Greek letters (ΣΙΟςΑζΑΤΤΑ ) That still divides the researchers, for some, the phrase would mean "SIOS AVAPA" literally would mean "GOD DOES NOT BURIED" for other much more simply as "IOSAFATTE. We enter a steep staircase with vaulted us down into the crypt. At the entrance hypogeum above a lunette shows a Holy Family dated XVI century, the crypt has a trapezoidal shape, the original entrance, situated below, is on the right rvolto west, typical of Italo-greek, apse with the altar placed at the east where the sun rises, the light and then God
We also see two circular columns placed almost to bear the time, if ever proof were needed, also dated in the sixteenth century.
The decorations on the walls are really beautiful and still evoke strong emotions in visitors, we note, inter alia, on the left of the Annunciation, a Crucifixion, which encrypts the dedication of the altar and the image of the left San Nicola. Over a pillar is a beautiful image of Christ Pantocrator (Blessing) and also on the wall opposite the entrance to two Virgin and Child unfortunately deteriorated.
Of great interest are the decorations of the time: there are pictures of fish and seagulls, small rosettes and badges crusaders, clover, ferns and eight-pointed star, also golden lilies and sometimes ill-defined shapes of animals like a monstrous dog-headed hydra maybe monkey and a bull.
All frescoes date back to two or three hundred, the arms would suggest the presence of Crusader Knights Templar Order, and the lilies would be of the Angevin period.
Climb to visit, crossed the road to Melissa, the old farm crucifix that some scholars would partez of an ancient monastery in Brazil. Currently, the farm consists of several small rooms, with the nearby church dedicated to Our Lady of Constantinople.
This church is painted with original paintings the late Byzantine era renovated several times with the underlying image even more ancient.
The place, as already mentioned, has been recently restored and is open with a little 'luck on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from 10.00 to 12.00.
MERIDIAN (Mino Specolizzi) 
The idea for this project comes from the need to revamp the territory culturally and architecturally. The name "Meridian" is the symbolic reference to a broader concept originally formed by two words: "demons meridians" to mean that he wants to be our passion for magico-ritual aspect of creatures that "enchant the water, weigh down the vessels, paralyzing the oars ... they stop the wind" so also the speeches of these can enchant, because "they do not get hold of anyone with violence, but enchant with their arguments "that the environmental and land of Salento as other sites have for several reasons. This project aims to be an echo through the realization of a permanent high threshold of attention making cultural interventions whose aims are to propose a red thread through the territories in the region. What is usually called a poetic research on the field. The use of the term territory in this case not only alludes to an extension / membership to a specific land outright, but claim differences and similarities with other areas. Different representatives of specific artists and similar paths in their territories. aware that the roads will need to travel a lot, but each to his own way. From the Neolithic Saharan and driest places on the planet ever comes without a doubt a very comprehensive guide on the systems of rocks around the catchment, condensation of moisture and water devices in general sources of water and life. The need is to build a system of knowledge in primitive and archaic which to compare, where the principle of hydraulic engineering and 9 / 8000 years ago, comes across to this day, step by step involving a wide area of \u200b\u200bthe Mediterranean where the resources were obtained only from empirical knowledge and necessary for the place where we lived and was forced to act. complexes stones apparently accumulated by chance, the fields or cleaning of larger areas, are actually the seeds of more distilled the concepts of hydraulic engineering. The live in dry places, the understanding of the movements of winds from the ancient Nabataean and Edomite until early last century in southern Italy in places where there were rivers and rain rarely did so that you experiment with forms of water production. We try to achieve in practice a system of collection systems, condensation and re-use of humid air through the placement of stones on certain routes rather than others, so as to ensure that the accumulation of spongy mass absorb the sweat of the night and supply of the soil moisture as the roots of ancient olive trees are all facing or down in search of land or more humid facing walls, mounds and mounds of limestone. Rebuilding a scenario of inherited values \u200b\u200bhanded down from prehistoric times by people on ways of living, resource conservation, harvesting water. speak of a project that can fit in his small part of a discussion on desertification of the planet earth. A speech, a place that tries (and only half as starting point that includes the vast opportunity to reconsider the redevelopment of the area) to bring together the artistic moment through installations of stone handy at the time of planting olive trees, vineyards and Mediterranean taking advantage of water intake that the stones with their power draining. A place where you can carry out cultural events supported by a "set" that is not merely visual material consumption, but the way in which knowledge move otherwise dormant, giving visibility and accessibility to what is still hidden. will try to draw some "guidelines" limited to two major issues that today more than ever to make a counterpart to this land: tradition and identity. Retracing our conscious memory of being part of the group of the "late coming." in this area probably feels much the weight of "tradition", even though the original aim of the project there is inherent a revision of the concept because even the concept of "reading". The facts speak for themselves, we continue to bring with us an identity, perhaps disguised with the rediscovery today, that thirty years ago seemed impossible. At this point it would be interesting to see how we can put recent operations, not just recently with a different idea of \u200b\u200btradition, if tradition is a concept that is masked and all or is only defensive. say that we have to give an idea of \u200b\u200btraditional means giving up something that protects us and seriously consider the idea of \u200b\u200bsomething with which we must measure. Perhaps more staggering is the commitment that we should undertake an analysis not only in its historical-philological, the feeling of coming late, not only the feeling of a time that has passed, but we just we came too late and we have nothing to say. We also think that it is time to start a great work of civil landscape restoration in the Mediterranean. Otherwise, a direct consequence of the loss of places. Shares architectural, historical, environmental and human cultural activities to strengthen the identity of places, overturning the context that the Mediterranean landscapes are not part of modernity, in contrast to the modern thinking in the light of the south. The task we want to give is that if we can act on an essential modification of the sites through the search for new forms, new strategies for recovery and protection of local identity. In the specific case that looks at the pace and context of the territory. What according to our point of view we need to investigate the hypothesis is to assume the identity of the sites as a resource (commodity), in an innovative project to develop specific and sensitive to cultural differences. said that easy and clear the field of misunderstandings, one must look at where to start. In our society accustomed to the idea of \u200b\u200bprogress, the beginning is only a first step, we begin by little, you try before you venture into the open sea and then, looking back, is measured with some satisfaction the road traveled, even though you probably only turned in a circle. Some happen instead of having to throw all their energy in a company as if it were the first and last, so strong is the magnetism of the thing, and then get it a distinctive learning. Aware that the Salento take the direction of other tourist destinations, in other words to dispel any real danger of a land in which any operation can become a project of "industrial sales" that has nothing to do with the creative local culture.
THE CROSS TO THE CRYPT UGENTO 
