Grotte di Castellana

Beneath the Murgia plateau in Puglia, the Grotte di Castellana form a karst system of galleries and chambers extending for about three kilometres. The route begins at the Grave, a collapsed sinkhole roughly seventy metres deep, and reaches the brilliant white concretions of the Grotta Bianca.

Why it matters

The caves' modern history began on 23 January 1938, when speleologist Franco Anelli descended the Grave at the request of Bari's provincial tourism authority and recognised the scale of the underground system. Anelli and Castellanese worker Vito Matarrese surveyed the galleries; after Anelli's departure, Matarrese reached the Grotta Bianca in 1939. The discovery brought national attention to a landscape long known locally through the dramatic sinkhole.

What to notice

The chambers display a varied vocabulary of karst formations: flowstone curtains, cave pearls formed from layered calcite, and eccentric stalactites that bend sideways or upward. Named formations include the Caverna dei Monumenti, the Duomo di Milano and the Torre di Pisa; a small underground lake reflects the surrounding crystals. The route culminates in the Grotta Bianca, whose dense pale concretions give it a distinctive luminosity. The cave environment also supports five bat species and endemic invertebrates, including species named for Anelli.

Context and history

The limestone formed in the Upper Cretaceous, around ninety to one hundred million years ago, from marine deposits. Later uplift and rainwater opened fractures and dissolved the rock, gradually shaping the caverns beneath the plateau. The sinkhole was explored before Anelli's descent: the official cave history records earlier rope descents, an 1800 order to recover bodies from the Grave and an 1847 recovery operation using machinery brought from Monopoli. Anelli completed his first survey by September 1938. The caves have since hosted notable visitors, film crews and concerts, while continuing to serve as a site of geological and speleological interest.