WWF Monte Sant'Elia Oasis

The area is in the province of Taranto, in the municipality of Massafra. To reach it, starting from Bari on the SS 100, exit at Mottola and continue towards Noci for 5.6 km, up to a hairpin bend on the left: shortly after, follow the signs for Martina Franca: after about 5 km on the right is the municipal road that leads to the Masseria. It covers about 100 hectares. The Oasis is owned by the WWF Association and it was precisely on the occasion of the oasis day that we decided to visit it. The services are entrusted to the Il Filo di Arianna Cooperative. It is mostly a hilly relief (about 400 metres above sea level), set in the southern slope of the eastern Murge, from which you dominate the Gulf of Taranto and the view reaches as far as the Pollino massif. It is almost entirely covered by a wooded strip (Bosco Caracciolo), which starts at Mottola and reaches as far as Martina Franca.

The vegetation takes on the classic appearance of the Mediterranean scrub, and presents an exceptional floristic richness, passing from garigue to woodland within a few steps. There are very many wild orchids. In the scrub there are lentisk, myrtle, phillyrea, buckthorn and strawberry tree. Hawthorn, wild pear, blackthorn and wild olive are often associated; among the low shrubs we find rosemary and thyme. In the Bosco Caracciolo holm oak woodland predominates, mainly holm oaks with some downy oak and Macedonian oak; there are also some Aleppo pines, whose spread is due to reforestation in past decades. In the undergrowth we find cyclamen, violets, butcher's broom, ferns and ivy. In the wildlife sphere we find many birds of prey, both diurnal and nocturnal, the leopard snake, the green tree frog, the stone marten and the badger.

The oasis includes a masseria made up of various residential clusters, among which is also a complex of 17 trulli that, based on the construction type, can be dated to the 17th century. Behind the trulli there are some "jazzi", typical animal enclosures