Menhir and Crypt of San Paolo – The Old Woman's Boulders loop from Otranto

Bike touring routes & trails

Menhir and Crypt of San Paolo – The Old Woman's Boulders loop from Otranto

Moderate

4.8

(32)

riders

Menhir and Crypt of San Paolo – The Old Woman's Boulders loop from Otranto

01:44

29.0km

160m

Cycling

Moderate bike ride. Good fitness required. Mostly paved surfaces. The starting point of the route is right next to a parking lot.

Last updated: August 7, 2026

Tips

Temporary access restrictions

Includes segments with temporary access restrictions.

After 11.2 km for 75 m

Customers only

After 26.3 km for 204 m

Customers only

Waypoints

Start point

Parking

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7.26 km

Baronial Palace of Giurdignano

Highlight • Historical Site

Posted in Salento Fortifications collection komoot.it/collection/1396951/-salento-fortificazioni - The Baronial Palace, located in Piazza Municipio, dates back to the early sixteenth century and was built as a fortified place against the incursions of the Saracens . In 1600 a new building was built and was equipped with a moat. Inhabited by the various families that followed one another over the centuries, from the 19th century it was the home of the Alfarano Capece feudal lords [source: comune.giurdignano.le.it/territorio/da-visitare/item/palazzo-baronale]

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8.00 km

Menhir and Crypt of San Paolo

Highlight • Historical Site

In Giurdignano the San Paolo menhir is characteristic, which stands on a rocky spur where the crypt of San Paolo was built. On the top there is a hole that provides for the housing of a cross, to indicate how different cultures have overlapped on this single structure, underlining its historical importance.

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8.38 km

Menhir Vicinanze 1

Highlight • Monument

This example, 3m high took its name by a rural farm 'Vicinanze' near it. Also catalogued by Cosime De Giorgi at the end of the nineteenth century, was certainly used as 'Osanna' due to the presence on the top of a crucifix's mark, made consequently at the christian diffusion. The sacralization of the monument is confirmed by the performance of religious rites and by the traditional Palm Sunday procession which ended in front of the menhir.

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8.61 km

Menhir Vicinanze 2

Highlight • Monument

The menhirs are monoliths of prehistoric age (9-8000 years BC), but during the Middle Ages they underwent a "Christianization" with the engraving of crosses and, in some countries, they are a pilgrimage's destination on Palm Sunday for the blessing of the olive twigs. The scholar Cosimo De Giorgi at the end of the nineteenth century dealt with the cataloging of the monoliths of this area. This menhir, after a falling in the early Thirties that had broken it in two parts, was repaired and relocated to its original site in 1953. It rises for three meters on a rocky cliff located near the pine forest and is assumed that it's linked to a nearby rock tomb, carved into the rock and preceded by a long 'dromos' entrance .

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9.98 km

Dolmen Stabile, Megalith Park

Highlight • Monument

The dolmen stable inside the Megaliths park in the Giurdignano area. The dolmens are funerary monuments from prehistoric times made up of stone blocks.

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10.0 km

Dolmen Stabile

Highlight • Historical Site

Located in the open countryside, it is very suggestive and is the only one to be saved, the slabs of dozens of dolmens are stacked on the side - east side. Unfortunately they have been cut down to make way for land to be cultivated.

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11.2 km

Il Casale di Quattro Macine

Archaeological Site

13.2 km

The Old Woman's Boulders

Highlight • Natural Monument

Story # 1
In the land of the Messapians, among the sacred rocks, one day the Epimelid nymphs were soaring in dances with sweet and sensual movements. The young Messapi, who grazed their flocks in that place, were conquered but, unaware of being in the presence of divine creatures, they challenged them, presuming to be superior in dance. At the end of the confrontation, despite the unequivocal superiority of the nymphs, the shepherds
naively claimed a victory that in any case would never be recognized, their fate had already been sealed at the moment of the challenge and the nymphs, with their curses, transformed them into plants (olive trees) that the desperation of the young people promptly began to contort .
In teaching: do not challenge the gods.

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17.6 km

Chapel of Saint Anna

Highlight • Religious Site

Included in the Byzantine Salento collection komoot.it/collection/1811756/-salento-bizantino - - Chapel of exquisite workmanship which, seen from the outside, does not reveal the treasure contained within. Frescoed with paintings of exquisite workmanship (as much as I am ignorant of frescoes, it left me speechless) it is no coincidence that it is nicknamed the "Sistine Chapel of Salento"

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29.0 km

End point

Parking

Way Types & Surfaces

Way Types