Gallipoli

Gallipoli stands on an island joined to the Ionian coast of Salento, its walls and harbour facing the Gulf of Taranto. Beneath the old town, underground mills pressed olives grown in the surrounding country. Oil was stored near the harbour in cisterns near the harbour before being loaded onto waiting ships, making the port an important centre of a trade that reached well beyond southern Italy.

In the early modern period merchants carried Gallipoli's oil through Mediterranean ports towards markets including London. The trade drew produce from both peasant cultivators and large landed estates. The mills beneath the streets and the storage cisterns beside the port reveal how closely the town's maritime commerce depended on the groves of its hinterland.