Sea and Nature
Sea and Beach
For its sea and its sandy beaches, FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) awarded Ginosa Marina with the Blue Flag 25 times, also in 2023; Charming Italy included its beaches in the list of the best apulian ones. The criteria used to evaluate Ginosa’s seashore were the inflexible feeds of the Tripadvisor users and the freely declared preferences of many independent bloggers.
This year Ginosa also received the Green Flag of Pediatricians 2022, for its children-made beaches. There are many beach clubs, but also free beaches. The main feature is the mediterranean pinewood, that frame all the seashore.
Curiosity: it is also possible to go on boat searching for the dolphins, since they’ve been enchanting us passing through our sea.
Nature
Our land is very lucky. Besides having one of the best apulian beaches, we have a considerable feature: the Mediterranean pinewood framing all the seashore.
In general, the coastal and dune areas are two complex systems, in which, in a small belt, you can move from the marine world to the land. The plants growing on the dune actively contribute to its formation.
The typical flora of this coastal area is the Mediterranean scrub,characterized by a dense shrub layer, usually made of evergreen shrubs with small leaves. Streams are also important, here there are the Galaso river and the Salinella Lake. The small brackish lake near the medioeval “Torre Mattoni” was born recently due to naturalistic causes. In our territory there are a lot of species of flora, avifauna and fauna.
Our area is abounding with life.
Flora
Ammofila, Euforbia di Terracina, Ginepro, Gramigna delle spiagge, Finocchio litorale, Campanella delle spiagge, Lentisco, Narciso Marino.
Flora
Ilatro Comune, Ginepro Comune, Mirto, Lentisco, Acacia Saligna.
Fauna
Caretta Caretta, Testuggine Palustre, Rospo Smeraldino, Cinghiale, Tartaruga di Terra, Volpe, Tasso, Riccio, Lucertola Campestre.
Avifauna
Altalena Minore, Cavaliere D’Italia, Allocco, Civetta, Falco della Regina, Fratino, Gabbiano reale zampe gialle, Sterna Zampenere, Sula Bassana.
History
Even if Ginosa Marina has not a significant historical heritage since it is a quite recent town, the near town of Ginosa has a considerable history, starting from the Neolithic. It still can show proofs of the transit of pre-classical, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Norman populations. Sextus Iulius Frontinus stated that Genusium was famous for hosting Pythagoras, that it “had walls and temples built to idols and the most worshipped was Janus”. Pliny the Elder visited it too.
With the downfall of the Roman Empire and the resulting invasions, the inhabitants of this area had to find a shelter in the natural or tuff-dig caves in the ravine. In this period the Italian-Greek monasticism was born, but also a lot of Basilian monks (from Saint Basil) gave their contribute from a spiritual, artistic and pratic view. In that period they made the paintings we can still see in our ancient rocky churches. At the end of Middle Ages people finally left the ravine and moved on the hill where today you can find the town.