History and Sights of Polignano

Polignano stands overlooking a crystal clear sea, its houses overhanging natural sea caves. Dramatic views are available from many cliff-edge vantage points

Two of the caves, known as the Grotte Palazzese, are open, but by appointment.

From the newer section of town a wide stone archway leads into the maze of medieval streets in the old village, an intricate maze of alleys, white courtyards and terraces overlooking the Adriatic.

A little beyond the gateway there is a pleasant square in which there is a church, the Chiesa Matrice, consecrated in 1295, with a massive, quadrangular bell tower. The 16th century Renaissance style prevails inside the church, but the presbytery is Baroque; in the sacristy there is a polyptych by Bartolomeo Vivarini (1472).

Not far outside the town there is the S. Vitos Abbey, with a sixteenth-century loggia, a large courtyard and a medieval watch-tower.