Poggiardo (lu Puššàrdu in local dialect), built on the ruins of the old messapic Vaste, ancient Bastae, and immigration of refugees from Muro, destroyed by Guglielmo il Malo in 1147.

According to existing documents Poggiardo began to develop from above by the end of the fourteenth century. In the clash between the Angiò and Manfredi di Sicilia, Poggiardo sided with the former and, after the victory of Angiò , he obtained several benefits.

Around the end of the fourteenth century became part of the Principality of Taranto and the center is equipped with a wall and a castle.

The estate passed in 1343 to de Pontiaco, then to the Grimaldi family, the Brancaleone, to Maremonte, to the della Monica, the Orsini del Balzo, to the Guarini, who held it until 1806, the date of abolition of the feudal concessions.

Monuments and sites of interest:

- The Mother Church: The oldest date back to the fourteenth century. The facade of the eighteenth century. The portal is placed the coat of arms whose symbolism - a cattle grazing - recalls, allegedly, the fertility of the land and the birth of the country. In this church held the ordination of St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron of students, celebrated on the Sunday after Easter on March 28, 1628.

- Basilian Crypt of Santa Maria: before the year one thousand, with Byzantine frescoes dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, depicting Christ, the Virgin and St. John, with some angels. Soron now preserved in the museum of Villa Episcopo.

- Ducal Palace of the Guarini: eighteenth century, famous for its quadreira;

- Vaste: messapico site, a hamlet of Poggiardo, probably founded in the seventh century BC, of which the ruins to see the ancient megalithic walls and the crypt of St. Stephen's, adorned with frescoes of the Byzantine tradition, dating back to different eras.