The Tower of Alto and the Damned Cliff

🌙 The Curse of the Tower of Alto

Love, power, and despair on a Salento cliff

The legend unfolds in the 17th century, during the rule of the powerful Acquaviva d’Aragona family, lords of Nardò and Conversano. In charge was Giangirolamo II, known as "the One-Eyed of Apulia" (il Guercio di Puglia) — a nobleman feared for his cruelty and lust for control.

One of his victims was Lucia, a young woman from Nardò, in love with her fiancé Tommaso, a humble fisherman from Porto Selvaggio. When the Guercio invoked the “jus primae noctis” — the alleged feudal right to claim a bride’s first night — their fate was sealed.

💔 The ultimate choice

On her wedding day, Lucia was taken from her home and brought to the Tower of Alto, perched high on the cliffs of Porto Selvaggio. That night, she escaped… and threw herself from the cliff, choosing death over dishonor.

Tommaso, devastated, is said to have wandered the coast in madness. Some claim he, too, leapt from the cliff days later — from the exact spot where Lucia fell.

🩸 The curse

Since that day, the tower was renamed by locals as the “Tower of the Cursed Woman” — not only in memory of Lucia, but because it’s said that the Guercio died soon after, violently and without a legacy, torn apart by feuds.

On stormy nights or under the full moon, some claim to see two ghostly figures on the cliff’s edge: a woman in white… and a man silently watching her.