Abandoned Quarries and Geotourism: an Opportunity for the Salento Quarry District (Apulia, Southern Italy)

The Salento peninsula (Apulia, Southern Italy) has been affected for many centuries by quarrying activities; at present 97 authorized quarries have been recorded, 72 % of them in activity. These quarries exploit sedimentary rocks, mainly limestones, calcarenites and clays. In particular, carbonate rocks are used for ornamental and building stones, whereas clays are quarried for various purposes. Exploitation generally takes place in open pit quarries even if in the past underground extraction was common where calcarenites do not outcrop. The Salento peninsula is studded by a number of abandoned quarries which have not received any remediation work. In this paper, some of these are described as they are marked by a very interesting geological heritage and can be defined as “geoattractors”, i.e. potential nodes of a regional geotouristic network. In this context, restoration planning should be promoted by the Regional Administration in collaboration with scientific Associations, local Universities and Environmental Associations whereas funding could be supplied the regional tax on quarry activities.