Grottaglie

Grottaglie is a town and "comune" in the province of Taranto, Apulia, in southern Italy.
Geography.
Grottaglie is in the Salento peninsula, a whole rock of Limestone dividing Adriatic Sea from Ionian Sea. The countryside around the city has many large and deep ravines.
History.
The name Grottaglie comes from the Latin Cryptae Aliae, meaning "many ravines". People lived here since the paleolithic Age. The fief of Grottaglie was given by the Norman overlords to the Archdiocese of Taranto in the 11th century. In the 14th century the church gave the fief a walls and a castle.
Since the 15th-17th centuries the jurisdiction over Grottaglie fief was split between the ecclesiastic administration (civil law) and the lay feudal lords (criminal law, Cicinelli-Caracciolo family). Fights between these two competing authorities and revolts by the heavily-taxed population were common until the end of feudalism (1806). 
Culture.
Folkloristic and religious events include the commemoration-day of and Easter-period when the Medieval-rooted confraternal religious orders perform their processions during the days of the ( rituals include and pilgrimage of confrères called “Bubble-Bubble” through the streets of town).
Other events include:
Economy.
Grapes and ceramics are two main elements of the local economy.
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