Maruggio

Maruggio
Country	Italy
region	Apulia
province	Tarent  (TA)
Coordinates	40 ° 19 ′  N , 17 ° 34 ′  E Coordinates: 40 ° 19 ′ 0 ″  N , 17 ° 34 ′ 0 ″  E
height	26  m slm
surface	48 km²
Residents	5,261 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	110 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	74020
prefix	099
ISTAT number	073014
Popular name	Maruggesi
Patron saint	John the Baptist
Website	Maruggio
The district of Campomarino di Maruggio

Maruggio is a southern Italian town with 5261 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in Apulia in the province of Taranto .

Geography and location

Maruggio is located on the north coast of the Gulf of Taranto , approx. 40 km southeast of the provincial capital of Taranto .

This north coast is formed from a small chain of hills and consists mainly of sandy limestone soil . The highest hills are the Monte Furlano with 90  m slm and the Monte Specchiuddo 72  m slm. The groundwater flows at a depth of 5 to 8 m.

The city of Maruggio has the neighborhoods Contrada Monaco Mirante, Contrada Campomarino, Contrada Commenda, Contrada Capoccia Scorcialupi and Contrada Acquadolce Cirenaica. The neighboring municipalities are Manduria , Sava and Torricella .

Attractions

The inner courtyard of the town hall (Palazzo Città) from the 19th century in Via Emanuele near the Piazza del Popolo with its palm trees is remarkable. Also worth seeing are the winding streets between the Piazza del Popolo and the Piazza San Giovanni with the historic church and the library in between.

tourism

Maruggio doesn't have a single hotel, but has a few small guest houses on the southern edge of the village, in Campomarino and Commenda, with barely more than 50 guest rooms together. Nevertheless, Maruggio and especially the port of Campomarino with its beautiful marina are a center of tourism, at least on nice weekends and in the summer months. Then the population rises from around 5,500 to over 35,000 people, which regularly overwhelms the entire infrastructure, especially the water and power supply. In winter around 90% of the properties in Campomarino and 95% in Commenda are uninhabited. This is due to the fact that there are hardly any jobs in the wider area, especially not lucrative ones, and the younger generation of the town mainly works in northern Italy and abroad and lives there with their families. The summer houses, which are mostly owned, are then occupied on weekends and especially during the summer holidays. A gastronomic infrastructure with restaurants, cafés and bars only exists in Campomarino and Commenda and is mostly only open in summer. The same applies to leisure activities such as tennis courts, beach clubs and boat rentals.

The center of all activities in summer is Campomarino with the sandy beach, the marina for 250 boats and the piazza at Torro Molina. The port is quite new, but it is falling into disrepair very quickly because the private main owner (51%) of the port and the municipality of Maruggio (49%) are blocking each other in bitter hostility.

Local production

There are wine , mostly from the grape variety Primitivo , who, like the famous Zinfandel comes from Croatia and is rated in the EU since 1999 as identical to this, and olives grown using traditional techniques. Since the cultivation is mostly private and uncontrolled by the authorities, it is not possible to provide reliable production quantities.

In Campomarino, around 20 deep-sea fishing vessels are used to fish. The estimated yield of marine animals of all kinds is around 50 to 200 kg per day and is falling sharply due to overfishing of the Mediterranean. The silting up of the formerly very deep harbor entrance (4 m) is increasingly hindering the entry and exit of ships and is sometimes impossible for vehicles with more than 1.6 m draft under unfavorable air pressure conditions (as of May 2007).

Web links

Commons : Maruggio  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.