Galatina (LE) Italy

Galatina, the city in which DOMUS is located in its historical center of Baroque and Medieval eras, was until the '60s the place where the women "Tarantate" (see definition below) went once a year to ask Saint Paul for forgiveness.  

The anthropologist Ernesto De Martino studied the phenomenon of “Tarantismo” in the late 50s and early 60s. After this study, unfortunately all traces of this phenomenon have been lost, because the local folklore of the “Notte della Taranta” and the patronal feast of Saint Paul have increasingly absorbed it.  

The “Tarantate” were women from a very poor social class, who worked the land and often were bitten by the tarantula (the spider). The bite of the tarantula poisoned the women’s bodies who then lived through a crisis of uncontrolled spasms leaving them collapsed on the floor.   

These crises took place at home, in front of all the family members. Only the music of the “Pizzica" played by improvised musicians from the villages of Salento (butchers, carpenters...), was able to calm the crisis of these women who from that moment on they were called “Tarantate”. Every year, on Saint Paul's day, these crises returned and the Tarantate lived again this hysterical and convulsive state in front of all the inhabitants of the city of Galatina. On the day of Saint Paul, on June 29th, all the Tarantate coming from all the villages of Salento, were brought to Galatina on the main square and inside the Chapel of Saint Paul, where they expressed themselves and their entire crisis in front of all the public present. This scene was repeated every year on June 29th and until the early 60s, after which all traces of this phenomenon have disappeared. Anthropology later explained that these Tarantate did not suffer from any behavioural disorder. 

The Tarantate were women who found strength and a precise language to defend themselves from the violence they suffered and to publicly share their emotional and physical suffering.