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Inhabitants's name: Cavallinesi

The civic coat of arms of Cavallino has a blue background with a white winged horse. Several Castromediano Palaceprehistoric finds were found in Cavallino and they are now in the Sigismondo Castromediano Museum in Lecce. We do not know the ethymology of the name ‘Cavallino’. It could derive from the Greek name ‘kabas’ that means ‘police’ then the village could have been a place where to pay duties. The name could derive from the Latin word ‘‘caballus’’ which means ‘horse’ then the village could have been a place where the Roman soldiers looked after their horses.  The third and last hypothesis is that the village was founded by the Greeks together with some temples dedicated to the God Sun. The origin of this village is then very mysterious but it certainly was the biggest town of the Messapic period. During the excavations that have taken place between 1964 and 1967 and later from 1974 andA part of Castromediano Palace 1975, people found out that the old town was 70 hectares wide and had huge walls. People found also several graves dating to 6th century B.C. with bronze pots and other funeral equipment. The messapic town was completely razed to the ground during the invasions of the Goths, Longobards and the Saracens. The King Tancredi of Altavilla included the village in the County of Lecce but later it became part of the Principality of Taranto with the Orsini del Balzos. In the 15th century Nita De Noha gave the villane to Giovanni Antonio Castromediano. They became Marquis in 1628 and Dukes in 1642 and ruled until 1806. Among the famous people of Cavallino we remember: Giuseppe Rinaldis took his degree in Law, became a famous lawyer and president of the Court of Lecce. Andrea d’Andrea was a priest specialized in theology. He lived in the 17th century and wrote several books. Oronzo De Rinaldis lived between the 16th and the 17th century and was a expert of Oriental languages. Giovanni Ferrari lived in the 17th century and was very good in Latin, he was also a theologian and priest. Giuseppe de Dominicis was born in 1869 was a very good poet, wrote several works in our dialect Convent of St. Domenico of Guzmanand died very young when he was only 36. Sigismondo Castromediano was born in 1811 and belonged to the family who ruled the village, the Castromedianos. He was very critical towards the Bourbons and took part to a rebellion against them in 1848 and for this reason was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. In 1859 he run away on a ship towards Ireland while he was waiting to be sent in America. He came back to Italy in Turin and was helped by the King. He was elected as a deputy in the elections of 1861 and was also counsellor of the Province of Lecce. He wrote many autobiographical books.

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