Alessano

  A city of uncertain origins although legend, linked to its name, has it that it was founded by the Byzantine Emperor Alessio I Comneno, who assumed a prominent role all over Capo di Leuca in Norman period; at that time the city became a bishopric and remained so until 1818. During the Angevin rule, it was the headquarters of a large county and between the 15th and 16th centuries, was under the rule of important noble families; Alessano experienced its most flourishing period attracting some families of wealthy merchants and a small community of Jews living in the city of Giudecca. The heart of the town is a picturesque maze of courtyard houses and Renaissance and Baroque architecture, evidences of an active cultural center and a thriving commercial hub developed around the ducal court which had its headquarters in the Palazzo Ducale: the edifice, built at the end the fifteenth century by the Del Balzo, was transformed into an elegant residence by the Gonzaga. At the end of XV century, Palazzo Sangiovanni was also built, an elegant Renaissance structure decorated with an elegant rusticated facade, owned by the Sangiovanni family from 1643; dating back to the 16th century is the Palazzo Legari, which houses the city hall since 1986. Among the religious architectures is Chiesa Madre di San Salvatore, an eighteenth-century structure built on an older edifice, was the Cathedral of the suppressed Diocese of Alessano until 1818. Among other religious buildings of the town are: the Chiesa di S. Antonio,  built between the 16th and 17th centuries with the Convento dei Frati Minori Conventuali (suppressed in 1809); the Chiesa and the Convento dei Cappuccini of 1628.   Alessano is located in the territory of the rock settlement of Macurano near which, in the sixteenth century, a farm complex was built consisting of Masseria Santa Lucia e dalla Chiesa di Santo Stefano. The municipality also includes the seaside area of Marina di Novaglie and the fraction of Montesardo, the Mons Arduus mentioned in the documents of the Roman period, a center that in medieval times was equipped with a castle and a surrounding wall with towers; the recent archaeological investigations has brought to light important remains of Messapian epoch (IV century B.C.)