Pietra forata

At the entrance of Calimera, a town of the Graecìa Salentina, the small Church of San Vito appears amid the olive trees, where there is the so-called holed stone, a huge marble block with a hole of 30 centimetres.

The Church of San Vito, built in the 16th century around a monolith, the characteristic “men-an-tol”, is visited once a year, on Easter Monday: this is the day of the rite of passage, during which people of different ages and sizes can pass through the holed stone, to encourage fertility, prosperity and wellness.

This tradition is connected to the worship of the Mother Goddess, who represents the fertility, the earth and the spiritual rebirth. The ancient forest of Calimera stretches around the small church, with bushes of Mediterranean scrub and long rows of olive trees. Not far away from here, there are the chapels of San Biagio and San Nicola.