Andrano, the Carbonari village steeped in mysteries

Located on the south-eastern side of the province of Lecce, Andrano includes a short stretch of the Adriatic coast, the hamlet of Castiglione d’Otranto and the coastal town of Marina di Andrano. Since 2006 it has been home to the Parco Costa di Otranto – Santa Maria di Leuca e Bosco di Tricase, established by the Puglia Region with the aim of safeguarding the architectural heritage and the animal and plant species of the eastern coast of Salento.

The origins of Andrano can be traced back to the attacks of the Vandals and Barbarians in the 5th century, which led to the destruction of many villages, including Casal Cellino, from whose ruins the current urban settlement was born. According to the reconstruction of the historian Giacomo Arditi, the town took the name Andrano in honor of Saint Andrew the Apostle, elected patron saint as the protector of fishermen, who represented the main activity of the small town. In the feudal period the hamlet was assigned to the De Curla family, then to the Rossi family and the De Castelli family. In the 14th century it was purchased by the Sambiase family and then sold to the Capece family. In the 15th century it was the turn of the De Hugot family and, subsequently, of the De Castillo family, the Orsini-Del Balzo family, and the Bourbon family. In 1481 it passed to Giovanni Antonio Saracino, as a reward for his participation in the liberation of Otranto. Then, in 1606, the fiefdom was taken over by the Spinola family, who were succeeded in 1660 by the Gallone family and, finally, by the Caracciolo family.

In the first twenty years of the 19th century, at the time of the Bourbon domination, the sect of the Filadelfi was active in the town, led by the notary Francesco Saverio Riccio and by Father Gaspare, a secret society of the Carbonari type which in that period became the government de facto del paese.

Among the most important monuments are the Mother Church of Sant’Andrea Apostolo, built in 1741, which stands on the remains of the ancient Chapel of Santa Lucia, from 1489; the church of San Domenico, built in 1561, which instead stands on the remains of a building erected in 1486 by the Saracinos to house the remains of Giovanni Antonio Saracino della Torrella, killed by the Turks in the siege of Otranto, and which preserves a Baroque-style high altar with a fifteenth-century fresco depicting the Madonna delle Grazie intent on repelling the attacks of the Saracens; the ancient Basilian convent of Santa Maria d’Amito, near which stands the Chapel of the Madonna di Attarico, from the fifteenth century, and a Byzantine crypt decorated with frescoes; the Spinola-Caracciolo Castle, one of the most interesting and well-kept castles in the south-east of Otranto, dating back to the thirteenth century.

Although the patron saint is Sant’Andrea Apostolo, the main and most attractive festival in the town is the one in honor of the Madonna delle Grazie, which takes place on the first weekend of August.