The old town centre set on an island offers the tourists the magic of its little streets, of the houses, palaces and churches built in carparo, the hard local stone. While walking along the narrow winding streets, you feel like tasting the cakes that smell so good or the fish so pleasantly shown in the fish market. It is the same fish you can appreciate sipping a good local wine, in one of the many restaurants in Gallipoli or nearby. You would like sitting in a cafè drinking a good coffee on the blocks of ice or eating a delicious coffee water ice with whipped cream enjoying one of the wonderful sunsets on the sea.

The original building, presumably Byzantine, was made stronger and larger during the Norman-Swebian periods. After the Venetian domination, the Spanish Aragonese took over the town, and the architect Francesco Giorgio Martini was commissioned to modify the building to fit the new defensive measures. He planned the Rivellino which was built in 1552. Nowadays it is used as an open air cinema in summer. The castle had a moat and a wooden drawbridge; the former was filled up and the latter was substituted with a stone bridge in 1603.

This limestone monument was probably built in the period between the Greek and the Roman dominations, even though some critics think it was built during the Renaissance. The fountain already existed before 1500 but in a different place, at "Fontanelle" near the old hospital dedicated to Jesus's Holy Heart. The misspelt name of the place "Korici" instead of the Greek "Korikios", makes us presume that the fountain was part of an ancient thermal resort. Probably to avoid infiltrations of seawater, in 1548, the fountain was moved nearby the ruined church of S.Nicola del Porto and in 1560 it was definitively placed where it is now. In 1765 the Municipality decided to build the front which faces the north that was leaned against the ancient front which faces the south. The fountain is being seriously damaged by the wind and the saltiness but it is still worth a visit.
On the front which faces the south , starting from the basement are four pedestals on which four caryatids rest. They are two men and two women whose capitals hold the lintel where scenes representing The Labours of Hercules are carved in the stone. The frieze and the frame divide the front into three equal parts decorated with images of the mythical nymphs Dirce, Biblide and Salmace.
Between the four basements there are three basins supported by three cupids. The water flew from the holes in the statues and then collected in a larger basin which is now underground.

• On your left is Dirce, the Queen of Thebes, who was jealous of her niece Antiope and therefore she enslaved and illtreated her. Antiope's son condemned her to be devoured by two ferocious bulls. Dirce is represented lying on the ground between the two bulls and just above her we can see Dyonisus who is going to change her into a stone fountain. The couplet written in Latin on the border of the lintel warns you against the dangerous consequences of jealousy.
• In the midst of the front is represented the myth of Salmace, the supplicant nymph who wished to merge her body with Hermaphroditus's, Venus and Mercury's son, who she had fallen in love with. Their naked bodies in chains are being transformed into a fountain in front of Venus and Eros.
  The couplet by Ausonius invites you to avoid love pleasures.
• On your right is represented Biblide's myth. She fell in love with her brother Cauno but he refused her love. Being aware of her fault she cried her eyes out until gods took pity on her and she was changed into a stone fountain. Here the nymph, lying on the ground, is clasping her brother's mantle. The written words warn you to despise illicit love affairs.

In the triangle on top, between the emblems of the town is King Philip of Spain's coat of arms .
On either side on the front which faces the north are pinnacles and shells; there is also the emblem of the town and a trough where the animals watered in past years.

the municipal museum Only a part of the museum has been opened up after the restoration, but it is a very interesting place to visit. A great quantity of objects, rare collections, scientific and historical curiosities, old books are put together in the same room after the eighteenth century fashion. You can see the skeleton of a whale, human and animal aborted embryos, collections of minerals, stuffed animals, weapons, coins, stamps and also Messapic tombs.