Monte Sannace Archaeological Park

The Archaeological Park of Monte Sannace holds one of the most important indigenous sites of pre-Roman Peucezia. The settlement has returned evidence referable to a very wide chronological period that from the Iron Age reaches up to the first-imperial Roman age. The maximum prosperity of the site is limited to the VI-III centuries BC and in particular to the Hellenistic phase . Monte Sannace in the second half of the fourth century BC is surrounded by defensive walls that draw the subdivision of the center into acropolis and inhabited area located in the plain to the west. The landscape value is added to the archaeological value, since the park offers the possibility of fully immersing oneself in the landscape of the Murgia . The Archaeological Park of Monte Sannace is inserted within a still intact Mediterranean-type landscape, in the center of the Murge. It preserves a part of the ancient Apulian city (Thuriae?), Which between the seventh and third centuries BC spread over an area of over 50 hectares. The tour includes two itineraries : one archaeological and the other naturalistic . In the first case the visitor is offered the opportunity to observe the topographical configuration and structural characteristics of the ancient city ; in the second, to appreciate the naturalistic-environmental qualities of the place as a whole and to reach observation points of particular landscape interest. Both routes start from the Masseria Montanaro , located at the main entrance of the Park, and wind between the plains and the hills, crossing and sometimes overlapping . first excavation intervention in 1929 , conducted by the archaeologist Michele Gervasio . Therefore, regular research campaigns were conducted by the Archaeological Superintendence from 1957 to 1961, under the direction of Bianca Maria Scarfì, subsequently resumed starting from 1976, in the lower inhabited area, and from 1978 on the acropolis by Ettore Maria De Juliis. An excavation site of the University of Bari has been present on the site since 1999.The area of the ancient city destined to the Archaeological Park has been the subject of numerous restoration and enhancement interventions which have led, as well as to a better knowledge of the visible monumental remains, to the extension of the parts that can be visited and to the creation of suitable didactic equipment and services for welcoming the public. The research, restoration, enhancement and promotion interventions are still in progress.