Chronology of Muro
8th century B.C.: Messapian predecessors, the Iapigians, build a village of huts in the area.
Mid 6th century B.C.: the biggest Messapian town known of to date in this area is founded in the Muro Leccese area. The contacts estabilished with the Greek colonies change Messapian lifestyle.
Second half of 4th century B.C.: the city is enclosed in a circuit of walls, 7 meters high and 4 kilometers long.
Mid 3rd century B.C.: the Salento area is conquered by Rome and the settlement in Muro, after a harsh siege, seems to have gradually declined and eventually been abandoned.
554 A.D.: the beginning of the Byzantine era which lasts until the arrival of the Normans in the Salento area.
924: according to the seventeenth century historian Girolamo Marciano, Muro is destroyed by the Saracens.
10th century: the San Nicola church of Byzantine rite is built, better known as the church of Santa Marina. Some Byzantine coins discovered in Borgo Terra date back to this period.
1068: Otranto falls into the hands of the Normans; end of Byzantine domination in The Salento area.
1132: under the Norman King, Roger II, the hamlet of Miggiano is documented.
1136: an anonymous chronicler tells of the Norman attack led by William the Bad against Muro. The hamlet of Brongo must have already existed at this time.
1251: Ludovico de' Monti, Marquis of Corigliano, becomes Lord of Muro.
1380: Muro has become Land “Terra” and Property of the Crown: aggregated to the Princedom of Taranto, soon after it is donated to Raimondello Orsini Del Balzo and is passed on to the son, Giovanni Antonio.
1438: Giovanni Antonio Orsini Del Balzo concedes Muro, by then elevated to Princedom, to his relation Florimonte Protonobilissimo.
Ante 1442/1458: construction of fortifications in what is now the historical centre. Probably the beginning of the town plan.
1449: clashes between the Angevins and the Venetians in Otranto.
Nel 1463 the De' Muro family settles in the Brongo hamlet.
1480: Otranto falls into the hands of the Turks and is reconquered by Christian troops the following year.
1481: Luigi Maggiulli holds the Turks to blame for the destruction of the San Zaccaria cenoby (where a fair was held) which depended on the Italo-Greek monastery of San Nicola di Casole.
1481: Muro is documented as being fortified: the arx Muri is cited in the inscription placed on the tomb of Count Giulio Antonio Acquaviva d'Aragona in Sternatia, who died in action against the Turks.
1492: Christopher Columbus discovers America.
1496: Muro, Pulsano and Miggiano together are taxed for 81 fires or tax units (circa 400 people).
1506: Alfonso Acaya begins building the castle to protect the village of Segine-Acaya (LE).
1522: the Archbishop of Otranto Fabrizio De Capua goes on a pastoral visit to Casale Muri in the dioceses of Otranto.
1532: 92 tax units are documented in Muro (circa 450 people).
1537: the Turks attack Castro.
1540: pastoral visit on the part of the “vicario generale” of the Otranto diocese, Antonio de Beccariis, to the Parochia Terre seu Casalis muri.
1545: 113 tax units are documented in Muro (circa 560 people).
1546: the date written above the main door to the courtyard tells us that Palazzo del Principe had already been built.
1555: the hamlet of Miggiano is no longer inhabited.
1561: the construction of the Convent begins on the site of the old monastery of San Zaccaria, the Convent is later entrusted to the Domencian fathers.
1571: the Battle of Lepanto marks the end of Turkish maritime power in the Mediterranean.
1599: the moat in Muro seems to have still been in use.
1622: the moat was backfilled.
1797: Muro was included in the Royal fisc after the death of the last exponent of the Protonobilissimo family.
Post 1797: King Ferdinand IV bestows Muro on Antonio Pignatelli.
1828-1914: Luigi Maggiulli, historian of Muro Leccese.
1999: Muro Leccese is nominated "città".
2004: the Museum of Borgo Terra opens.
2017: the Museum is extended with the Messapian section.
2018: the Museum wins the "Premio Riccardo Francovich" award, established by the Society of Italian Medieval Archaeologists (SAMI) and conferred to the best museum of medieval archaeology.
