Centro storico di Ceglie Messapica

Ceglie Messapica's old town climbs two hills at the southern rim of the Murge, where the Messapic acropolis of Kailia later grew into a walled medieval borgo. Lime-whitened lanes, noble facades and the sentinel mass of the ducal castle record more than two thousand years of settlement between the Valle d'Itria and the Salento plain.

Why it matters

This is one of the rare Apulian centres whose street pattern can be read in layers. The FAI describes Ceglie Messapica's historic centre as a Messapic and medieval borgo on the ancient acropolis, at the southern folds of the Murge. Lime-whitened lanes and noble facades lead toward the ducal castle, which dominates the old town.

What to notice

Look first for the Messapic substructure. Four arcs of pre-Roman fortification, the paretoni, still ring the hill; the second circuit ran roughly 3.7 kilometres and enclosed more than a hundred hectares, among the most significant walls of the Messapic world. The steep staircase the FAI calls i cento scaloni, the hundred steps, still climbs to the acropolis after its medieval remodelling, and the little square of Ognissanti occupies the space identified with the ancient agora.

The medieval quarter closes at Piazza Plebiscito, marked by a nineteenth-century clock tower, and opens onto the newer town. In between, the lanes keep their chianche paving, lime-white walls and noble palaces, among them the palaces Allegretti, Nannavecchia-Monaco, Vitale and Greco. Fragments of the medieval circuit survive in via Muri and via Pendinello, recalling the three gates of Porta del Monterrone, Porta di Giuso and the destroyed Arco della Croce.

Churches punctuate the circuit. The Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta rises on the acropolis itself, its present cross-shaped body dating to 1786 under a maiolica dome, with frescoes by Domenico Carella. The baroque church of San Domenico, which the FAI attributes to the school of Bernini, belongs to a complex begun in the mid-sixteenth century whose convent served as the town hall until 2005. Above it all watches the crenellated tower of the ducal castle.

Context and history

The FAI describes Ceglie Messapica's historic centre as a Messapic and medieval borgo on the ancient acropolis, at the southern folds of the Murge. Its streets preserve this layered settlement around the castle at the summit.

Under the Normans the fortified borgo took the shape visitors walk today, gathered under the castle at the summit and wrapped in walls with three gates. The surrounding countryside is marked by trulli, masserie and megalithic specchie, dry-stone mounds that remain visible among the olive groves. The local food tradition includes focaccia cegliese and the almond biscotto cegliese.