Parco Nazionale del Gargano

Promontorio del Gargano


One of Italy's largest national parks, a place of sweeping coast and deep, ancient forests, sits on the spur of southern Italy in Puglia, jutting out into the Adriatic Sea.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Promontorio del Gargano attractions

1. Museum & Nature Centre

1.8 MILES

There is a small centro visitatori (visitors centre) in the middle of Foresta Umbra that houses a museum and nature centre with fossils, photographs, and…

2. Santuario di San Michele

6.23 MILES

Over the centuries this sanctuary has expanded to incorporate a large complex of religious buildings that overlay its original shrine. The double-arched…

3. Tomba di Rotari

6.25 MILES

A short flight of stairs opposite the Santuario di San Michele leads to a 12th-century baptistry with a deep sunken basin for total immersion. You enter…

4. Castle

6.28 MILES

At the highest point of Monte Sant'Angelo is this rugged fastness, first built by Orso I, who later became Doge of Venice, in the 9th century. One 10th…

5. La Salata

10.71 MILES

This palaeo-Christian graveyard dating from the 4th to 6th centuries AD is 9km out of town. Inside the cave, tier upon tier of narrow tombs are cut into…

6. Castello di Peschici

10.97 MILES

Peschici's medieval hilltop castle stands sentinel over the town's port, and inside there is a fascinating Museum of Torture with life-sized replicas of…

7. Cathedral

11.28 MILES

Built by the Normans on the ruins of a Vesta temple, this 11th-century 'co-cathedral' (so called because its bishopric is shared with another) is in…

8. Chianca Amara

11.32 MILES

Vieste's most gruesome sight is this worn and polished stone where thousands were beheaded when Turks sacked Vieste in the 16th century.