From an historical point of view, the most likely hypothesis traces the origin of Casarano to Roman centurion Caesar who, around the 1st century BC obtained the assignment of these lands for military merits.

The name of Casarano, in fact, would derive from Caesaranum meaning 'possession of Caesar'.

The Roman origin of Casarano is also confirmed by the recent discovery, near the present Church of Casaranello, of two inscriptions dated back between the 1st century B.C. and the 1st century A.D, testifying the existence of a Roman farmhouse. The famous Via Appia Traiana (98-113 BC) lapped, among other things, precisely the area of Casaranello, the scene of all the oldest discoveries in the city.

Remarkable was among the Vth and XIth centuries the domination of the Byzantines, after which Caesaranum was assimilated into the Christian culture of the East, becoming for a long time - like everything in the Salento area- a land of border and encounter between the Eastern culture and the Western civilization. This is demonstrated by the fact that up to XVIth century both speaking Greek and Roman rites continued to coexist.

The most significant interventions in the church of Santa Maria della Croce (better known by the name of Church of Casaranello) go back to the 'Byzantine' period. It is a true jewel of the city and of the whole Puglia region.

Particularly violent was the Saracen invasion in 842 AD which forced the inhabitants of Caesaranum to move toward the nearby hill to the north in the current districts Terra, Lacco and Sant'Elia. Just these invasions caused the decline of the original nucleus of Casarano sanctioning the final crisis with the emergence of a new residential center, which was soon called Caesaranum magnum, as opposed to the original nucleus of Caesaranum parvum (Casaranello).

During the XIIth century, following the victory of Carlo d'Angiò on Manfredi in Benevento (1266), the fief of Caesaranum Magnum passed into the hands of noble families linked to the Angioins: the Tomacelli, the Filomarino the Conca. According to the epigraph showed in Santa Maria della Croce, a scion of the Tomacelli family of Casarano was pope from 1389 to 1404 under the name of Boniface IX, although on this matter there are numerous doubts.

By the end of the XVIth century, until the XIXth century, Casarano underwent a period of great prosperity, marked by the construction of numerous noble palaces, homes of prominent families who took turns in the town, giving birth to illustrious figures of national stature. First of all Francesco Antonio Astore, illuminist philosopher who was among the protagonists of the short and unfortunate Neapolitan Republic (1799). Alongside Astore, between the XVIIIth and XIX centuries, there was a large group of liberal spirits, among which the D'Elia who contributed to the Italian Renaissance.

Between the XIXth and XX centuries, a significant increase is being experienced in the cultivation of olives, mining and crafts. Important fairs and markets take place in this period attracting traders and buyers from neighboring towns.

Here, thanks to the resourcefulness of Luigi Capozza, was born a major industrial complex linked to the production of spirits. The second half of the 900 was characterized  instead by the expansion of the textile and footwear industry.

[www.comune.casarano.le.it]