Torre Colimena

The village has been built around the homonymous tower, sited right on its seafront, which communicates to west with Torre di San Pietro in Bevagna and to east with Torre Castiglione, in the municipality of Porto Cesareo. Torre Colimena is part of a defensive system of coastal towers constructed by Emperor Carlo V, king of Spain, after the Otranto invasion by the Turks in 1480, to defend the peninsula of Salento from their frequent invasions.

Carlo V is often quoted as having uttered the famous phrase “In my kingdom the sun never sets,” referring to the West to first new Spanish conquests in America after 1492 and, to the east, to Salento, the most easterly possession of the kingdom of Spain. The only episode that covers the small town of Torre Colimena, dates back to 1547 when approximately 400 marauding Turks disembarked from 5 sailing ships arrived in the quiet and sandy Marina of Torre Colimena to go in a raid inland, plundering the crops of the farms around San Pancrazio.

The meaning of the name of this place is still quite uncertain; However, the etymology of the name is clearly Hellenic, dating back to the Magna Grecia. Probably the name Colimena is due to the contraction of (Kali limènon, good ports), or (kollimèna, attached), as the bay of Torre Colimena and Salina dei Monaci appeared in the eyes of the sailors as two attached, adjacent safe harbours; or even the name might be the contraction of (kolympi Meri, places to swim).

While retaining its unmistakable Greek origin, the name Colimena recurs also in Spanish literature as a feminine given name, which is after, according to some other sources, presumably the nymph Colimena, a Nereid of Greek mythology.