Monteroni di Lecce (

Salentino Salentino () is a dialect of the Extreme Southern Italian ( in Italian) spoken in the Salento peninsula, which is the southern part of the region of Apulia at the southern "heel" of the Italian peninsula. Overview Salentino is a dialect of th ...

: is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

province of Lecce The province of Lecce (; Salentino: ) is a province in the Apulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lecce. The province is called the "Heel of Italy". Located on the Salento peninsula, it is the second most-populous province in Ap ...

, in

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. In 2008, it had 13,800 inhabitants. It is from

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

, in the

Salento Salento (; Salentino dialect, Salentino: ''Salentu''; Griko language, Salento Griko: ) is a Cultural area, cultural, List of historical states of Italy, historical, and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apuli ...

– the historic Terra d'Otranto.

History

Probably the name Monteroni comes from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''Mons Tyronum'', meaning "mount of the spear-men" and hinting at its origin as a training camp for the

Roman legion The Roman legion (, ) was the largest military List of military legions, unit of the Roman army, composed of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens serving as legionary, legionaries. During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 i ...

s. In fact, originally the Romans apparently established a military stronghold on the hill nowadays called ''San Filii''. From this era of

romanisation In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

of the region, coins and other archaeological material has been found and studied. During the Norman period, the

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

dom of Monteroni was part of the County of Lecce. In 1250

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

Frederick II (and also sovereign of the

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...

) granted the fiefdom to the De Cremona family, followed in this feudal office by the Montoroni family who held it until the 16th century. The Montoroni built the first Baronial Palace in the town in the original shape of a small fortress. When the fief passed onto the Duke of Spongano, the Baronial Palace was enlarged and gained the current Leccese Baroque style. Monteroni di Lecce owes the baroque period also its bell tower and the two chapels, which were in the central square (currently “Piazza I. Falconieri”) on the site currently occupied by the major church “ Chiesa Matrice”.

Feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

in the south of Italy was abolished with the events following the French Revolution when also the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until ...

became a republic and then a

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

ic kingdom. Since then it was the “Municipality of Monteroni di Lecce” which took over and carried on the sorts of the fief of Monteroni.

Main sights

Sights in the town include the Chiesa Matrice,, the Palazzo Baronale, the Villa Romano, the Villa Carelli-Palombi, the Villa Urselli and the Villa Saetta.

Twin towns

* Lengnau, Switzerland

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monteroni Di Lecce Cities and towns in Apulia Localities of Salento