Soleto (Sulìtu in the local dialect) is a small Griko-speaking town located in the heart of Salento, in the province of Lecce, in Puglia, Italy. The municipality has a total population of approximately 5,300 and is one of the nine municipalities that make up the Union of Municipalities of Grecìa Salentina.

Soleto enjoys a strategic location within the Salento peninsula. This will allow participants to visit several nearby towns, including Lecce (“The Florence of the South”), Otranto (“The Pearl of the Adriatic”), and Gallipoli (“The Pearl of the Ionian Sea”).

History

In the 5th century, Soleto was elevated to the status of a Byzantine-rite bishopric. In the Middle Ages, it was ruled by Count Gjon Kastrioti II (the Roman numeral is linked to the Kastrioti dynasty), son of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg. In the 13th century, the Angevin rulers of Naples chose the city as the capital of the County of the same name, which was subsequently governed by the Castro, Balzo, Orsini, Campofregoso, Castriota, Sanseverino, Carafa, and Gallarati-Scotti families, until the final abolition of feudal control in 1806. Soleto became part of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799 and was subsequently a center of the Carbonari during the Italian Risorgimento.

Soleto’s Map

The Soleto Map, believed to be the oldest geographical map in the Western world, was discovered in Soleto by Belgian archaeologist Thierry van Compernolle of the University of Montpellier on 21 August 2003, and is on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto.