Many of the centers of Daunia mountains benefit from the richness of the springs and especially from the watercourses that flow down the Tavoliere with their sinuous course. Starting from those with a torrential nature, such as Celone, Cervaro, Salsola or Vulgano, up to the Fortore river, which, with Ofanto, is one of the major rivers of Puglia, this complex system has determined the settlement geography of Daunia and today draws the map of the places with the highest biodiversity index. However, in addition to the fertility of the rural territories and the high biodiversity of the ecosystems, the rivers have also given impetus to real productive activities, such as the production of bricks and milling.

In fact, the remains of the treatable mills along the Celone and the Cervaro are different. In 1983 a research, updated in 2004, identified on the banks of the Celone 15 mills and 5 others on the tributaries. Today the complex system of mills, many of which are reduced to ruins and hidden by vegetation, is a true example of industrial archeology, which still awaits a recovery project made complex by the difficulty of dialogue between private property and institutions. Here, among the various devices strike the powerful millstones made with the stone quarried in the nearby “petrera”. This is perhaps the case that most of all refers to the combination of water – stone that finds other significant interpretations in the fountains that embellish this and other nearby villages.

Vincenzo Rizzi