Tricase Porto is on the southern coast of the Salento, and between 1945 and 1947 this is where Camp 39 received Holocaust survivors, along with Santa Cesarea Terme, Santa Maria al Bagno and Santa Maria di Leuca. Refugees were housed in empty uninhabited villas, some of which still bear graffiti or writing in Hebrew such as Villa Maria, Villa Martella, Villa Miranda-Dell’Abate and Villa Pizzolante-Leuzzi. At the time the Jewish survivors set up a flea market with second hand goods in Piazza Pisanelli. Tricase Porto was one of the underground or clandestine points of departure for Mandatory Palestine. Close to the port, the village of Tricase that housed refugees for several years: the Misdrachi family had imported tobacco farming and processing from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century . Later they were followed by an Italian family, the Allatinis, that had relocated in Thessaloniki that pursued the same activity. The tobacco processing building is still standing and used for cultural events.
