Giuggianello according to some it would have taken its name from a vast estate of jujube (Ziziphus jujuba) while for other from a Centurion or another  Roman commander by the name of Giuggianus.

Giuggianello has an area rich of  human pre-existence as far back as the Neolithic era. The most significant prehistoric sites are: Monte San Giovanni, Quattromacine and Massi della Vecchia.

In the territory can be admired the menhirs and the dolmens Polisano, Crocecaduta and Stabile o Quattromacine. The latter dates back to the Bronze Age, in the first half of the II millennium BC

Quattromacine is a medieval house "Quattor Macinarum" between Byzantium and the West. A certificate of Federico II di Svevia in 1219 confirms its dependence on the Archbishop of Otranto.

The inhabitants initially lived in the district "Muntemasciu" (Monte Maggio) then, for lack of water and the presence of a large number of snakes, they descended to the valley where, thanks to the abundance of water and the flat and fertile soil, they began to devote themselves to the cultivation of the lands previously considered swampy and unproductive.

It is likely that, at every Roman settlement, founded following the extension of Roman rule over the city of Taranto and the entire Messapia upto Cape Leuca, triumvirs used to go there with the task of dividing the land and assigning it to the soldiers.
Each soldier was destined an area of fifty  bushels of earth or moggi di terra;
The centurion was destined one hundred Jugeri or moggi di terra;
The knight was destined one hundred and fifty Jugeri or moggi di terra.

In the fields assigned to them they built houses, villas for them and the settlers who together made up the house or village.
The tiny hamlet of Juianellum (another medieval name of the village) following the destruction of Muro, by the Saracens in 924, got a considerable increase in population, as the people who escaped from the slaughter, they settled and mingled with the pre-existing population.

With the advent of the Normans in 1192, the houses passed to the county of Lecce ruled by Tancredi d’Altavilla and subsequently to the principality of Taranto. Under the government of Giovannantonio Orsini del Balzo, Prince of Taranto, in 1434 Muro, Sanarica, Giuggianello e Minervino had the privilege that defined them as fiefs  and which were the cause of serious disorder bathed in the blood of the inhabitants.

In 1749 the family Lubelli, having no direct heirs, loses the feud which falls back in the Regio Fisco. It was sold and purchased by the Archbishop of Otranto allowing him to unify the territory with the abolition of feudalism with the title of Baron of Giuggianello.

[www.comune.giuggianello.le.it]