Entry Mar 6, 2016
The WWF Oasis of Le Cesine & the Masseria
The World Wildlife Fund Oasis
(WWF) of Le Cesine (pictured, left)
is a state nature reserve in the Puglia region
of Italy (darkened in the map), in the province
of Lecce and within the city limits of Venola.
It is a 380 hectare/940 acre strip of wetland on
the Adriatic coast; the town of Acaya is inland,
5 km away; the city of Lecce is inland, 15 km
away, and the city of Otranto is 25 km to the
south on the coast. The Oasis is almost at the
bottom of the heel of the "boot" of Italy; if
you're in good shape, you can wade out and swim
to Albania, a mere 80 km to the east. The area
of the WWF Oasis is reclaimed land from what
once was one of the last areas of uninhabitable
and unhealthy coastal swamp between Otranto and
Brindisi, also on the coast and, as the crow
flies, 65 km/40 miles to the north.
(photo -
Biaggio Zanon)
The key words here are reclamation
and wetland. Reclaiming the swamp
was considered in the early 1800s, but it never
happened. The reclamation project started after
WWII in the 1950s. The conversion of swamp to
wetland was a large undertaking and entailed (1)
channeling brackish water out to sea and keeping
it out, and (2) digging wells to let fresh water
seep up from the acquifier to nourish all the
newly planted trees (including stands of
Mediterraean pine and Maquis shrub (macchia
mediterranea in Italian) and to fill some
lake areas. By 1971 the ex-swamp/homeland of the
deadly Anopheles mosquito was declared
a “wetland of international interest; by 1979,
it was a “European Special Protection Zone”
because of the vast amount of flora and fauna.
(It is a birdwatchers' paradise, with at least
two dozen species at last count, including the
common pochard, a diving duck, the symbol of the
Oasis. There are turtles and lizards and frogs
[Oh my!] and foxes, badgers and hedgehogs. It
was made an Italian State Nature Reserve and is
now run by the WWF There are nature trails for
you to follow, guided tours, and visitors are
welcome all year round. It's a big success
story.On the premises of the Oasis stands the "Masseria". (A fortification. There is an entry on these and other kinds of fortifications at this link. From that entry, here is the relevant passage:
...The Aragonese and then the Spanish broke feudalism in the south in the late 1400s through the 1600s by forcing the barons and lords of the castles in the outback to move in closer to the city (Naples). There then arose the need for a new kind of fortification for those left behind, those who cultivated the land and who were now left without feudal protection against...banditry. If you were...cultivating...an unprotected piece of land...roving bands of outlaws could simply take your money and your life... In Italian, there are two terms: casale and masseria. They both mean small groups of houses protected by a tower on a large tract of farmland. Casale is the older term; masseria is more recent and, in technical usage, means more rural...[these structures] were “castles” in the technical sense: you could withdraw within and defend; they were forts as well as living quarters for the defenders —not soldiers, mind you, but well-armed citizens...
The masseria of Cesine (pictured,
right) goes back to the 1500s. It is
probably somewhat of a misnomer to call it a masseria
because it did not start out as a protected
farmhouse as the above description implies.
Indeed, it was originally a military
fortification to guard that part of the coast
from pirate raiders, the Saracens. The
fort was in communication with similar
installations along the coast. It was however
largely self-sufficient, thus additional
buildings and personnel were required,
so maybe "walled town" will do as a
description. It was expanded upon and kept up
during the period when southern Italy was a
Spanish vice-realm, i.e. the 1500s and 1600s
and then gradually became obsolete in the
1700s when the Bourbons took the throne of an
independent kingdom of Naples and when pirate
raids had largely ceased. The masseria was
abandoned and left to rot out in the middle of
the swamp. It is now back up and functioning
as an integral part of the administration of
the WWW Oasis. You can go in, get information,
sign up for tours and even take part in
"environmental games" (flora and fauna
identification, etc.). Clearly, a success
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