Monograph Miggiano

• PREFAZIONE 5
• Introduzione 8
• Centro Storico 14
• Chiesa matrice 20
• Cripta di Santa Marina 23
• Storia Municipale 27
• Français 30
• English 42
• Deutsch 53
• Español 65
• BIBLIOGRAFIA 75

MIGGIANO

Miggiano is located in the northern part of Capo di Leuca and has a population of 3500 inhabitants. The village, that borders with the municipalities of Ruffano, Montesano Salentino, Tricase and Specchia, extends in a flat area protected to the west by the heights of the Serre Salentine.

Miggiano boasts an energetic industrial attitude, particularly linked to the production of fixtures and elements of furniture, thus consolidating itself as a District of wood and furniture. Ancient is the presence of man in this territory, as attested by precious archaeological finds. More significant are the studies carried out in the locality of Pozzelle, where some finds testify to the presence of a medieval farmhouse that was abandoned during the modern era.

According to the historical documentary tradition, the feudal epic of Miggiano had already begun during the Norman period, but it is between the XVII and XVIII centuries that the farmhouse begins to live a flourishing period from a social and financial point of view, with a succession of the three feudal families from Salento: the Lubelli’s, the Gallone’s princes of Tricase and the Vernaleone’s, last feudal lords.

The hypogeum mills in the municipal area which date back to between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are real evidence of a lively and intense industrial activity linked to the production and sale of oil, a peculiarity that has animated Miggiano for several centuries. Even today, the economic tradition develops in agricultural production, focusing in particular on the cultivation of the olive tree: a tree that extends across vast meadows in Miggiano’s countryside.

In recent years Miggiano has consolidated its production of extra virgin olive oil which is carefully processed here by renowned organic farms that have made quality and biodiversity a hallmark. Authentic in its entirety is the rural landscape, preserved and surrounded by the stones of the dry stone walls, evidence of the typical and ancient architecture of the agricultural-pastoral civilization of southern Salento. Walking through the Miggiano countryside you can make pleasant meetings, like the pajare: rural buildings made with dry stones. The pajare had different uses, for example as storage places or in the warmer months they were also used as a dwelling by farmers. In Miggiano the commercial tradition is combined with innovation in the modern fair district, located behind the Town Hall Building on the provincial road that leads to Taurisano.

In the month of October, in fact, Miggiano is home to the prestigious EXPO 2000: the regional fair of industry, crafts and agriculture of the South Salento, established for the promotion and enhancement of products of the Salento culture. The beauty of Miggiano is combined with the tradition of Salento hospitality, which here in the Capo di Leuca still preserves the typical characteristics of the ancient hospitality of the Levant.