The civic coat of arms of Lizzanello consists of an ilex-tree with a she-wolf on a white background. In the village there were two menhirs and a dolmen and, even if they have been destroyed, the tell us that somebody has lived here since the Age of Bronze. We have not got any historic documents on the origins of this village, but we can advance two hypothesis: the village was either founded by those who survived the destruction of the Hamlet of Rudiae (1147) by William the Bad, or by those who run away from Lecce when the town was invaded by the army of Ottone IV, the Saxon Emperor. The poor people found shelter in the territory of Lizzanello and founded this new village. In this case the name of the village would then derive from the Latin “Licyanellus”, ‘small Lecce’, because the refugees wanted to remember their original town. In the 13^th century the village was included in the County of Lecce and was then ruled by the Maresgallos, the Garzas, Maria D’Enghien, Bernardo Paladini, the barons D’Afflitto, the Chiurlia De Baros and the Lottis. The Paladini family reclaimed many of the marshes around the village. Among the famous people of Lizzanello we remember: Raffaele Calogiuri lived in the 19^th century and took his degree in the University of Turin. He came back to Lizzanello and became an important tobacco entrepreneur. Many of the people of Lizzanello worked in his factory. He died during the Second World War from heart attack. Cosimo De Giorgi lived between the 19th and the 20th century. His culture was surprisingly wide: medicine, history, science, seismology, geology and meteorology. He wrote several articles and books especially a book on his land called ‘Terra d’Otranto’. He died when he was 80.