Santeramo in Colle (Santermano: ) is a town in the Metropolitan City of Bari and region of Apulia, southern Italy.
Its current name comes from St Erasmus, martyr of the Diocletian era and patron saint of the city who, according to legend, is responsible for its founding.
Physical geography By altitude, Santeramo in Colle is the highest municipality in the metropolitan city of Bari.
The countryside has the typical geomorphological features of the karst territory: a limestone substrate, with rocky out croups and the presence of lamas (Lamalunga, Lamadavruscio, Lamadispina, Lamasinara, Lamadilupo), jazzi (Iazzitello, Iazzo vecchio, Iazzo Sava, Iazzo De Laurentiis, Iazzo De Luca), Sinkhole e Ponor, courts (Corte Finocchio, Curtocarosino, Curtolevacche, Curtopasso, Curtolafica), parks (Parco Giovanni, Parco Lanzano, Parconuovo, Parco del Trullo, Parco Sava, Parco Caldara), lakes (Lago Travato, Lagolupino, Lagolaguardia, Lagopalumbo, Lacometana), mountains (Montefungale, Montefreddo), wells (Pozzo Leone, Pozzopoveriello), fountains (Fontana di tavola, Fontanarosa).
Morphology Morphological and vegetative articulation allows to identify three distinct areas: the woods, the Murge, the matine.
Woods The wooded area of the territory is the located area in the direction of Bari, so called because in ancient times it saw the presence of vast extensions of oak forest extensions, today almost completely extinct, which have given way to cultivated land and heavily man-made areas. Also on via Alessandriello there is the Denora wood, while on the way to Matera there is the Parata wood.
The Murge The Murge are the element that most characterizes the territory of Santeramo and are mainly made up of limestone rocks, which cross from South to North from Serrone to Murgia Sgolgore. Particular are the Quite, on via Alessandriello, characterized by an orderly mesh of dry stone walls (i parate), trulletti (i casédde) and specchie.
The matine The Matine, in the direction of Matera, are represented by a vast plain, once marshy, which constitutes the fertile area of the santermano territory and is characterized by extensive cereal cops and the presence of numerous rural settlements.
The caves The territory is characterized by numerous karst cavities that create a dense network of underground tunnels.
Climate The climate of Santeramo is a temperate continental climate, due to the altitude and the distance from the sea.
The temperature in winter is around +4 °C, while in summer it fluctuates around +21 °C with a high percentage of humidity.
Annual rainfall is around 600 mm. In winter, snow frequently falls, especially in the presence of cold air of Balkan origin, with sometimes considerable accumulations.
In the winter months, fog is frequent, especially in anticyclonic conditions or with southern humid currents, coming from the Ionian Sea.
Santeramo appears to be the coldest place among those falling in the metropolitan city of Bari.
The Italian climatic class is D, the degrees day are 1884.
Origins of the name The toponym Santeramo has medieval origins.
Several hypotheses have been advanced on the city name, among which there is one that claims it may refer to a place of worship: Santo Luogo dell'Eremo, with the presence of an adjoining monastery, built after the 11th century,Place described in Danti, Egnazio, Cartografie Rinascimentali to which it was probably introduced the adjective of "Santo". The first document, confirming this hypothesis, which refers to the toponym "Ad Sanctum Eramum" (Santo Eramo / Eramo Santo) appears for the first time in a document "Privilege of Costance", preserved, in original, in the Tabulario di Santa Maria la Nova, and is dated Palermo 1996 December, XVI Ind. Ad Sanctum Eramum probably referred to the role played by the Machaelic cult in the territory. The hermitage of Sant'Angelo.
Another, however, supports the reference to the Martyr Erasmian, a hypothesis also supported by many local scholars. There are paper references from the 12th century (there is a charta dated to 1180).Sull'Antica Lupatia, Auro Pampaloni, Vito Zullo; Dalla capanna alla casa, Dinamiche di trasformazione nell'Italia sud-orientale VIII - V sec. a.C., Alessandra Liseno The cult of S. Erasm must have been widespread since before the 11th century.
History
The Antica Lupatia
The history of pre-Roman Santeramo - the ancient city of Peuceta The modern town of Santeramo, made up of curved walls, is set on an area of very ancient frequentation. The foundations of the ancient town are formed by three side by side alignments of shapeless limestone blocks, with a foundation thickness of 30–40 cm. Floor beaten in concotto and tuff.
During the excavations that look place in May 1980 in Santeramo, the Superintendency revealed the remains of two settlements attributable to the 9th to 8th and the 5th to 4th centuries BC. A loom weight was also found with the representation of a sphinx on both sides (the only example in Italy), certainly the symbolism of the sphinx and who and why used it must be investigated. The context is key to understanding its meaning. Furthermore, a stove was found consisting of thin superimposed layers of crushed stone, clay and coal, resting on a plane of small limestone slabs, overlooking a large patch of ash and coal (in the report of the excavation of the Archaeological Superintendece of Taranto).
The Peucetians settlement of Santeramo belongs to the typology of centers located inland (inland) and developed on the promontory that dominated the whole surrounding area, a geographical position of control, exploiting the hydrogeomorphological characteristics of the land, corresponding to the fertile territories, torrential furrows of rainwater collection basins, the blades and, in the presence of ancient karst (caves). The presence of the ancient karst lake is confirmed.
The Roman phase The Borgo Antico can be divided into the original Peucetian area and the area of subsequent Roman expansion, probably to be ascribed to the period from the presumed reconstruction in the 1st century BC and up to the early centuries AD. The previous Borgo Antico then expanded into the early medieval town surrounded by walls.
An exemplary finding concerns an epighaph found in a garden belonging to Antonio di Santo,S. Eramo intèr Gioiam et Altamuram rep. c. a. 1867 in macerie hortorum Antonii di Santo, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, XII. Genusia, Theodor Mommsen which bears the name of the deceased -ELASIV- (subsequently classified (v)/(c)-ELASIV-(s)), and placed by Theodor Mommsen between the Santeramo and gioiese area.
The origin of the toponym Lupatia Making a summary of the studies relating to the etymology of the toponym, we find:
Lupatia (lib/lub) Λιβαδιον (valley) G. Colella
(lub-) Root extrude lup- (which is about death) G. Alessio, S. Bekakos
(lib-) Stagnant water G. Alessio (most recent)
Aliba (lib-) Place of worship of water and the e S. Bekakos
The foundation of Ancient Lupatia About the date of foundation of Lupatia, or rather of the birth of the poleonym, it is hypothesized at the turn of the 9th and the end of the 7th century BC. Considering the numerous other toponyms around Canosa and their supposed closed-Perugian origin, a high dating would seem more probable. But this obviously requires further confirmation. In these areas of Peucezia, in fact, most of the settlements have been frequented at least since the Apennine culture. By foundation we therefore intend to hypothesize that period of time in which we began to speak of the ancient settlement through the Etruscan root. Therefore, more than a foundation, we should speak of poleonímica connotation.
The Territory of Santeramo
The Neolithic The assiduous human presence in the Santeramo area has been witnessed since the Neolithic, given the discovery of many elements belonging to this historical phase, specifically in the area known as Le Matine, located south of the current city center and characterized by flat soil, first marshy at the end of the seconda fase sub-boreale and then wooded in the Neolithic, due to probable reclamation in the epoca romana.
The entrenched Neolithic village of Masseria Fontana di Tavola of Talve The site of Masseria Fontana di Tavola is located along the Via Appia Antica (also called 'Via Tarantina'), which delineates the border between Santeramo in Colle and Matera. It is located in the locality of Valzerosso, near a small valley crossed by a branch of the Silica, on a flat area which, proceeding eastwards, ends with a slight difference in height. Currently the area is privately owned and a cereal farm has been set up there.
Etymologically, the place name would mean 'Source of the River Talvo'. In fact this area must have been the source of this watercourse which flanked the city of Castellaneta and of which various sources speak from the Roman period up to more recent times. To cite a few: «CASTELLANETTA: west of Metula, on the Talvo river. It has a Suffragan Bishopric of the Archbishop of Taranto».
The quantity of ceramic fragments found can be ascribed to the chronological horizon between the Neolithic, the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age, collected on the site of Masseria Fontana di Tavola. The study of the ceramic finds has led to believe that the area was frequented and occupied more assiduously during the Ancient Neolithic, given the preponderance of archaic impressed ceramics (especially in the area between Altamura and Santeramo in Colle). In this regard, Damiana Santoro argued that "the findings denote a more widespread population during the Early Neolithic phase; in the Middle-Recent Neolithic there seems to be a tendency towards a thinning out, or rather a concentration of the inhabited areas, probably as a result of changing needs to be reconnected to different environmental climatic conditions". The analysis of the findings of Masseria Fontana di Tavola allows us to verify that the side had a period of re-occupation during the Neolithic-Final, considering the large number of Diana-style fragments, in the inhabited areas and a resettlement found also in other areas of southern Italy, only to be re-dimensioned again during the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age.
The entrenched Neolithic village of Masseria Grottillo Within the landscape of the Upper Murgia of Santeramo in Colle, the remains of the entrenched Neolithic village of Masseria Grottillo are identified, which are of considerable interest from an archaeological point of view. The entrenched Neolithic village was identified by Materano scholar Gianfranco Leonetti, in the field of topographic research and subject only to the constraint of the Archaeological Superintendency of Taranto - Dr. Donata Venturo on 26 May 1997 and has been studied since then. The village is currently in a state of neglect.
The large Peuceta settlement of Masseria Di Santo and Bonifacio On the basis of some studies, it emerged that the archaeological site in question is located in the area of the Di Santo and Bonifacio farms S-SE of the town of Santeramo in Colle, height of 360 m. The site dominates the valley below and is crossed by ancient paths, N-NS and E-ES, not easily definable in time, which reached the Viglione farm, which coincides with Sublupatia, a station of the Via Appia. The Biancofiore, had been, as today, a sorting center of different roads. Like Sublupatia, which was not only a station of the Via Appia, but also the node from where the connection to the Minucia, briefly testified by the Tabula Peutingeriana which also in the area no longer shows the Via Appia, but with greater precision by the Cosmographia Anonimo Ravennatis and by the Guidonis Geographia.