National Museum and Archaeological Park of Egnazia “Giuseppe Andreassi”, Fasano

Named after Giuseppe Andreassi, director of the museum and the archaeological area from 1976 to 1985 and Archaeological Superintendent of Puglia from 1990 to 2009, the museum stands outside the defensive walls of ancient Gnathia, in the area of the Messapian necropolis. 

The recent renovation retraces the thirty centuries of history of the important Bronze Age settlement, the Messapian and Roman city,  episcopal seat in late antiquity, through the exceptional richness of the displayed finds and the particularly evocative illustrative apparatus.

The Archaeological Park of Egnazia, set in a pleasant natural-environmental context, is one of the most interesting in Puglia. 

The city, known in the ancient world and mentioned by Greek and Latin authors, due to its privileged geographic position, was a strategic commercial stopover linking West and East.

The first settlement, consisting of a village of huts, arose in the 16th century BC and had continuous life until the Iron Age, when the entire territory of Puglia was inhabited by the Iapyges. Around the end of the 6th century BC, Egnazia was identified as a Messapian settlement, the current territory corresponding to the provinces of Brindisi and Lecce. From the 3rd century BC, with the presence of Romans in the territory, the city transformed and in the 1st century BC became a municipality. It gained great importance thanks to the presence of the port and the Via Traiana, a convenient variant of the Appian Way on the route from Rome to Brindisi. From the 6th century AD, the lower part of the settlement was gradually abandoned and the settlement continued on the Acropolis, until the 13th century, within a large fortified area.

From the Messapian phase of Egnazia remain the massive defensive walls and the necropolises, with pit tombs, semi-chamber tombs, and monumental chamber tombs. 

From the Roman city, visitors can admire the remains of the Via Traiana, the Civil Basilica with the Hall of the Three Graces, the Shrine of the Eastern divinities, the porticoed square, the cryptoporticus, and the baths. Among the Christian worship buildings, built between the 4th and 6th centuries AD, the Episcopal Basilica with the baptistery and the Southern Basilica, originally paved with mosaics, stand out.