The coat of arms of Maglie depicts three  intertwined silver rings on a blue field. The shield is surmounted by a civic crown: a circle of wall (with four doors and many windows), which supports eight towers with silver crenellated walls and gold watchtowers.

For a long time it was thought that the interlocking circles meant the links of a chain from which, in fact, the name Maglie comes from. The theory to which was given credence was that the origin of the town had been determined around the XIth century, by the fusion of three counties close to each other: St. Basilio, St. Egidio, St. Vito. These would have inspired the name of the new county.

But in the last century Oronzio De Donno jr., a local lawyer and patriot, questioned this theory. The city, according to him, was founded by a Greek immigrant population from Epirus, the Malli, from which the name Malle, originally came fromand become later Mallie, Mallis, Malie and finally Maglie.

It was Emilio Panarese who modified the studies on the city name.
According to the professors of Maglie, the people of "Malli" and the merger of the three counties had nothing to do with the name of the place which would instead found an explanation in the Indo-European root "mal" meaning mound, mount, high place.

But Maglie is set in a place characterized by a flat landscape and there is nothing that invokes a hill. The explanation is found if you are referring to the dialect according to which "munte" (mountain) is any rock outcropping above the ground.

In the territory of Maglie, in fact, many districts refer to a nonexistent elevation of the land: "Muntarune grande", "Muntarune piccinnu" farm "Muntagna" etc. for example.

Maglie is located in a valley between small hills, whose territory had human habitation since prehistoric times, as evidenced by the findings of the Paleolithic era in the district Cattiè and San Sidero (80-45 thousand years), and the Bronze Age in the district Cavallare and  via Adigrat (XI-XVI century BC.), to the Bronze age are also attributed the many megaliths (dolmens and menhirs) scattered in the countryside around Maglie.

In historical times, the oldest documented settlement is dated back between the IXth and IIth centuries, during the so-called second Byzantine colonization.

Barons of Maglie were over the years, the Lubello, the Maresgallo, the Carreras Y Eril, the Filomarino della Torre and finally the Capece Castriota.

Until the XVIIIth century Maglie is not sodifferent from the other villages of the Terra d'Otranto. The structure of the first urban center has remained almost intact with its two human areas (islands): the Island of San Nicolò and island of the middle road, which branched off winding streets (strittule) and dead ends (curti).

Where today stands the monument to Francesca Capece, the last feudal family of Maglie, was Lo Segiu, the ancient seat or seat of the Town Hall, which will find between 1840-43, on the east side of the square, its permanent seat, great for its time .

In the early decades of the XIX century the urban look begins to change: buildings in local stone (pietra leccese) are built on which the glaze of time extends a warm ocher color giving the city an air of refined and striking beauty.

[www.comune.maglie.le.it]