VIESTE

Vieste is a town in the province of Foggia, in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. A marine resort in Gargano, Vieste has received Blue Flags for the purity of its waters from the Foundation for Environmental Education. The area covered by the comune is included in the Gargano National Park.

The town is bordered by Mattinata, Monte Sant'Angelo, Peschici and Vico del Gargano. The coast is interesting from a geological point of view, the cliffs being composed of a chalk-like white limestone, sparsely banded with thin layers of flint. Next to the town there are two large, straight beaches. The rest of the coast is made up of gulfs and small, hidden sandy beaches. Erosion by water and wind has shaped the calcareous rock into grottoes and arches. Since the coast is steep, some of the finest sights can be reached only by sea.

Pizzomunno and its legend

The sea stack Pizzomunno standing at the north end of the Spiaggia del Castello (Castle Beach)Pizzomunno, seen in close-up, viewed from the sea, with bathers at its base, showing scale

Vieste's best-known landform is Pizzomunno, a tall sea stack standing 26.6 m (87 ft) in height and situated on the Spiaggia del Castello ("Castle Beach").

"One night I was in Vieste, between the sea and the rocks of Gargano. But, while others lay peacefully asleep, I could find no repose: a voice that seemed to sob oppressed my heart with anguish". Thus begins "The Legend of Pizzomunno" which tells of the love between Cristalda and Pizzomunno. The couple were attracted to these whitest of rocks by the song of a hundred mermaids who, gripped by envy for so great a love, transformed the young fisherman into a mammoth sea-stack and shackled the ankles of his Cristalda with a chain, dragging her to the bottom of the sea. Every hundred years, for just a single day, the mermaids allow the unhappy girl to see her beloved again. Ever since, the echo of Pizzomunno's lament has been heard at the spot on the seashore where the tragedy was played out. The fable, the work of an English traveler of the 1800s, was inspired by the majestic Pizzomunno stack (Viestan dialect for 'tip of the world') which rises to 26.6 meters and measures 20x12 meters, with a minimum distance of 25 meters from the cliff. Erosion phenomena combined with the destructive power of the sea have detached and progressively separated the stack from the cliff, helping to shape it over time into its present form.

Until a few decades ago, Vieste's main resources were fishing and agriculture. Now tourism, with hotels, resorts and camping facilities, has transformed the town's appearance, economy and lifestyle.

Notable buildings

• Il castello svevo, a castle with a triangular shape and bastions at its vertexes.
• La cattedrale di Santa Maria, the Vieste Co-cathedral in Apulian Romanesque style. It has a basilica plan with a nave and two aisles. Its bell tower was rebuilt in Baroque style in the 18th century after the previous one collapsed.
• Il Faro, Vieste Lighthouse, built in 1867