centro storico, collinare, difensivo, Ceglie Messapica, Caelia (denominazione storica), Celie de Galdo (denominazione storica, XIII secolo)

Ceglie Messapica occupies a hilltop that has been inhabited since at least the Hellenistic period, when it was a substantial Messapic settlement called Caelia. The ancient town spread across more than 100 hectares, enclosed by a defensive wall nearly four kilometres long. In the Roman era, the site declined, shrinking to a small centre. The medieval borgo then reoccupied the hill, its fortified perimeter now reduced to the area of the present historic core. Two surviving gates mark the old circuit. The modern town later expanded westward and south-westward, leaving the medieval quarter intact as a dense warren of narrow streets, churches, and palazzi. Archaeological evidence for the earliest phases is fragmentary, drawn from occasional finds since the late nineteenth century. Three necropolises, dating from the mid-fifth to the third century BC, have been identified to the west, south and south-east. Ceglie’s layered history, Messapic, Roman, medieval, modern, is legible in its topography and street plan.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.