Aradeo and surroundings

Aradeo is a cheerful town of just 10,000 inhabitants located 27 km southwest of Lecce and only a few kms far from other interesting towns like Galatina, Nardò, Gallipoli and Otranto and covers an area of 8.51 kmq.
The term Aradeo comes from the Latin word Ara, meaning "God's Altar." The protector is the Bishop St.Nicholas of Myra.
The town's coat of arms represents an altar covered with a tablecloth, with a chalice, a host and two lit candles.
They symbolically represent: the altar, the beliver's paradise on earth, the chalice is the religion and the Christian life, the chandelier, the brightness of holiness. According to recent studies made by the Professor Pisano, this town, of the IX century, had greek-Byzantine origin. The town's coat of arms was created later.
The ancient name of the country was Charadreon, a term that means "a town rich of fresh water springs."
In fact, the territory is rich of wells.
The name Charadreon was replaced by Haradreon and later transformed into Aradeon and then Aradeo.
The professor Pisano also found and translated two of the scrolls in 1149, which revealed the origin of the greek-Byzantine city.
In fact, there are churches and priests with greek names, among them the famous poet Droso of Aradeo, whose manuscripts were found in Paris and recently released.
The town's hystorical center is not large, but however it's worth to visit it.