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| Inhabitants’name: Sampietrani
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The civic coat of arms
of San Pietro in Lama is marked by a blue background, on which the papal keys
and
 the
ancient red headgear used by the popes until the XIX century, are represented.
The toponym might come from the name of St. Peter (in Italian San Pietro) that,
according to the tradition, being in the Salento to bring Christianisation,
stopped for a rest in this small village. According to a legend he stopped near
a well, that might have actually existed. The word "Lama", instead, comes from
the Latin and it means "marshy". We do not know when the first settlement rose
but according to some historical sources this centre, during the feudal age, was
given by the Normans to the Bishop of Lecce, that held it uninterruptedly until
1806, when the feudal system was suppressed. There are a lot of famous local
people to remember. Mazzei lived in the XIX century, and he was a very
beloved priest by the people of San Pietro
in Lama. He spent his life in humility and charity and when he died he was
mourned by all the people of the village. Father Bonaventura from Lama was a
lettered man and an excellent preacher. During his life he wrote and published a
lot of works. Tommaso Quarta, a good monk, died in the XVIII century. The other
most well-known characters are Giacomo De Masi (a journalist), Pietro De Vitis
(a philosopher and theologian) and Giuseppe Buttazzo (a poet who wrote his poems
in dialect).
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