Ceglie Messapica

Ceglie Messapica is a town and comune located in the Province of Brindisi in the Puglia region, southern Italy, in the Murge traditional area.

According to legend, it was founded by the Pelasgi, to whom belonged the megalithic structures known as specchie.

After the arrival of Greek colonists around 700 BC, it received the name of 'Kailìa' (Καιλία). Nearby the village were extraurban sanctuaries dedicated to the God Apollo (near the modern church of San Rocco) and Venus (on the Montevicoli hill).

The city was the military capital of the Messapi (the civil capital being located in the nearby Oria), a fought against the Greek Taranto in the latter's attempt to gain a passage to the Adriatic Sea. The Messapic Ceglie had some 40,000 inhabitants. In Roman times it was already decaying, and in the Middle Ages was a small village known as Celie de Galdo, with a little castle.