The story that I am about to tell you originally 100 years before the birth of Christ and starts from the horizon, starts from the sea. Bishop Sarnelli calls our Adriatic Sea "porcelain" because unfortunately he is never calm and is never a friend to whoever sails it. Christ has not yet been born, but a ship from Africa belonging to the Roman fleet is at the mercy of the waves right in the Adriatic Sea. Leading that crew is Caio Mario. The conditions in the sea are becoming more and more adverse and a hawk takes off from the bow, U 'Castarill said in the Polignano dialect, is looking for a landing place where the human eye cannot reach. At a certain point, Caio Mario sees that his falcon is pointing in a direction. Bar to starboard, he heads for the hope of a safe harbor. At one point the lookout shouts “Earth! Land!". The hawk is already positioned on the rocks, waiting for Gaius Mario and his crew. He saved them. On those rocks the commander will build the first building in Polignano and two poets Lucio Pilosio and Aulo Licino Archia will be in charge of finding a name for that place. The two artists suggest “Polymnia” honoring one of the 9 muses of Zeus. And here it is that place takes the name of Polimnianum. That pagan building and temple will cross the centuries with the symbol of the muse Polyhymnia inside. But Christianity is looming and at the moment of converting the pagan temple into a church the statue is destroyed and the shards used as an entrance floor, so that the faithful can step on the profane.
"I was an idol and now made a door, but it's true I say that I am a dead stone".
Today we no longer darken the statue of Polimnia, but we still remember U'castarill, and it is thanks to that falcon that we have Polignano today.
