Salento is dotted with watchtowers which were constructed to sight seaborne invaders, including those coming from Turkey. Many of the towers were built in the 16th century. The towers come in a variety of designs, including a truncated cone, a truncated pyramid, a fortified masserie, a tower masserie, and a closed-courtyard Masseria. After their initial function as lookout posts for sighting seaborne threats became redundant, many of the towers were either "abandoned or used as a place to store agricultural tools". Subsidence has affected the tower structures.
This is the list in a clockwise direction from the province of Brindisi and culminating in the Province of Taranto.