Santa Maria al Bagno (formerly Santa Maria di Bagni) is a town in Apulia in Italy. It is a frazione of the commune of Nardò and is located on the Ionian Sea. Santa Maria is a small fishermen village, and it is located on the coastline of the Gulf of Taranto, Ionian west coast between Gallipoli and Porto Cesareo. It has unspoilt rocky and sandy beaches all along the coast. Particularly important is the next door regional wildlife reserve "Portoselvaggio", famous natural park with 400 hectares of pinewood forest and 7 kilometres of high and unpolluted coasts. Portoselvaggio is one of the main green lungs in the Puglia region. Santa Maria Al Bagno is approximately 45 mins travelling time by car from Brindisi, 20 mins from Lecce and approximately 1hr 30 mins from Bari. There are several food shops in the village, restaurants, pubs, bars open in summer 24h a day, a chemist, a post office, real estate agents, tourist agents, barber shops, petrol station, newsagent shops and a weekly market every Sunday. Lots of large supermakets, shopping centres and fashion boutiques are in the town nearby such as Nardò, Galatina, Gallipoli and Lecce. Santa Maria al Bagno was the site of a post World War II displaced person camp. A new museum opened in the village dedicated to thousands of concentration camp survivors who travelled through Italy on their way to Israel after World War II. The Museum of Memory and Welcome has been created in Santa Maria through which some 150,000 Jews passed between 1943 and 1947. The museum houses all the material relating to the time from the town council archives, including witness reports, photographs and videos, as well as a multimedia room and a library. Media related to Santa Maria al Bagno at Wikimedia Commons