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Paper short abstract

As a huge monolith placed between land and sea, Pizzomunno is undoubtedly a landscape attraction of Vieste, a renowned southern Italian tourist town. However, what makes it even more attractive are the legends about its origin, whose meanings and functions recently increased and diversified.

Paper long abstract

Pizzomunno is a large and tall limestone rock placed on the shore at the entrance of Vieste, a tourist town in Gargano (Puglia, southern Italy). Given its peculiar look and location, it is not surprising that this monolith is regarded by the locals as an identifying feature of the town. On the other hand, Pizzomunno is one of its most visited and photographed attractions. Nonetheless, this natural site would not be the same without the enchanting meanings provided by folklore. In particular, a current local legend, which is in fact the result of a combination of motifs coming from earlier beliefs and narratives, identifies Pizzomunno as an eponymous fisherman who was petrified after losing his beloved Cristalda because of the mermaids jealousy. What makes even more fascinating this story is the fact that, one night every a hundred years, Pizzomunno recovers the human form and can stay with Cristalda, temporarily released by the mermaids. In this way the rock giant has been turned into a symbol of authentic and tragic love, as well as a metaphor of the unpredictable, metamorphic relationships between land and sea, humans and other-than-human beings. In the last years the local community, especially after the legend became the subject of a song by a renowned Italian artist, has increasingly invested on Pizzomunno as shaped by folklore, so as to diversify its tourism supply, promote new cultural initiatives and modify accordingly its own identity.