Alezio lies on a limestone slope. It is a town of Messapian origin, testified by the discovery of many archeological remains that stress the importance of the Messapian Alexsias or Alytia. Later Roman writers such as Stradone made reference to Aletium and Plinius Senior reported on the life of the rural community of Alezio described as a rich and populous town where also culture and commerce were important. When the Traiana route which was to continue the Appia route which ended in Brindisi was constructed Alezio became more and more important. The new route linked Brindisi with Otranto-Castrum Minervae, Leuca headland, Veretum, Ausentum, Anxa (Gallipoli), Aletium, Neretum, Taranto. Moreover, joining the extreme south of Salento to Rome, the route helped to establish and improve good commercial relationships between Rome and Salento.
We know much of the Messapian period up to the seventh century B.C. and we also know something of the Roman period, but little we know of the times when barbarian invasions brought death and destruction to Messapian Alexias.
In 1384, the oldest inhabitants of Gallipoli who had lived in Aletium for a century, left the hamlet and returned to their original dwelling place.
In 1567, Bishop Pelegro Cibo during his pastoral visit to Alezio, related that two churches existed in the old hamlet in ruins. One church was dedicated to St.Peter who was nicknamed " Cucurizzato" after the pyramidal shape of the dome of the church. The other church, dedicated to St.Pancrazio, kept the famous well, still existing in Raggi property, where at that time the first Christians were baptized.
In 1714-1715 Gabriele Carlo Antonio Coppola, a lawyer and a landowner gave some of his landed estates to ten farmers and asked them to build new urban houses instead of rural houses and forbade them from breeding cows, bulls and goats ; they could only breed donkeys, horses and mules.
Also Francesco Alemanno nicknamed "Picciotto" granted landed estates to some landowners such as the Tafuris, whose mansion , which is of great interest historically and architecturally , is now the seat of the Messapian museum.
Mr Coppola and Mr Alemanno therefore so much contributed to the development of farming and commerce that the population increased from 200 in 1742 to 2,626 in 1852.
In those times the hamlet was named Villa Picciotti after "Picciotto", MrAlemanno's nickname and Alezio's emblem were two little children joining hands. Now the emblem is a phoenix with the motto "Post fata resurgo"

Gallipoli was a very important port between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries because there existed a kind of modern Stock Exchange where the price of olive oil was fixed. Here the famous " Marseille" soap was produced mixing the by-product of olive oil pressing with sodium carbonate. Gallipoli was therefore the birth place of this famous soap and it was in Gallipoli that the first and only "tonnara" ( the ritual of tuna fishing) in Apulia has been performed for years.
Alezio's economy was dependant on Gallipoli and it was only on January, 30,1854 that Alezio, the former Villa Picciotti obtained its administrative autonomy.

the Church of S.Maria della Lizza About 1000, the Church was built by the Basilian monks who had abandoned their hypogeal crypt nearby. The Church of S.Maria della Lizza, at first dedicated to S.Maria de Cruciati and then to S.Agata became a cathedral in 1269 when Gallipoli was razed to the ground by the Angevin king Charles I and its inhabitants took refuge in Alezio. The one nave interior, in the form of a Latin cross, presents a protruding transept and an apsidal presbytery facing east as it is in the churches where the Byzantine liturgy is performed. Only a few frescoes dating from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries can still be seen on the internal walls of the church.

A legend has it that St. Peter was in Alezio for some time and in that period the first Christians were baptized near a well which was named after St. Peter in Raggi property. There also stands a Byzantine " aedicule" dedicated to St. Peter in a private garden which is being excavating by the archeologists.
In 1842 while digging the ground to open the provincial road a mosaic like floor of a church and many tombs containing bones have been found.