Alezio has very ancient origins as there are those who claim it was founded by Lizio Idomeneo ( the mythical king of Crete), and who by Messapians that, to remember their homeland and their capital, the city of Alytia, in Acarnania, they similarly named it Alytia.

Plinio describes the topography of the Japigia and indicates the city of Alezio among the most important in the region. According to the well-known Roman historian, the Aletini descended from the Japigi who descended, in turn, by Osci (Italic people settled in Campania between the XI and VIII centuries BC), as the many epigraphs, written with Osci (Messapian) characters, found in Alezio have later confirmed.

A few meters from the city center, in the village of Monte d'Elia, a messapian necropolis,used between the VI and II centuries BC was discovered together with various types of burials.

From researches carried out, Alezio turns out to be a very important center in the VI century BC thanks to the contacts and the continuous cultural exchanges with the Greek city of Taranto which was sometimes allied and sometimes enemy.

Around the year 1000, Alezio was destroyed by the Saracens and its inhabitants took refuge in the neighboring island of Gallipoli. The town was abandoned until the XII - XIII century, when a temple dedicated to Santa Maria of Alizza or Lizza (celebrated on August 15 each year) was built  by some Basilian monks. Casal d'Alezio was so rebuilt. It was a modest size village that remained so until the XVII century.

To record a recovery of the manor house we have to get to the years 1714-1715, when two landowners, Antonio Coppola and Francesco Alemanno (called "picciotto"), granted the land to some farmers. According to the tradition, in honor of the latter, Casal d'Alezio was called Villa Picciotti. According to another hypothesis, the name was derived from the presence in the port of Gallipoli of many Sicilian fishermen who were staying with their families in some of the houses around the church Lizza.

In 1854 the small town gained administrative autonomy and in 1873, King Vittorio Emanuele II authorized the substitution of the name of Villa Picciotti in the messapic one of Alezio.

The coat of arms depicts the phoenix, the mythical sacred bird and a roll of paper, bearing the inscription " post fata resurgo ", which means reborn after the adverse destinies. Under the phoenix you can see the inscription Alexias (ΑΛΙΧΙΑC) in messapian letters.

[Wikipedia]