The meaning of the name

The term “grancie” has very ancient origins and different meanings although closely related to the rural world.
The word commonly indicates the barn or the place of storage of the grains, but in Salento – and even more in the Land of Arneo – it has a special meaning and rich in historical connotations. The term, in fact, dates back to the period following the fall of the Roman Empire when the Basilian monks arrived in Salento became promoters of a major reclamation of the areas heavily devastated by the barbarian invasions.
The work of the Basilian Monks brought significant innovations in the social, cultural and rural context of Arneo Land. Monks, in fact, with the help of the locals, mostly peasant, gave birth to the first forms of grancie, i.e. agricultural organizations based on the cultivation and breeding. In a short time the word took on a connotation more “broad” to represent a specific type of rural architecture (small simple homes place side by side and linked by a central area) and family organization. The grancie, in fact, became places of safe shelter, often fortified, where most peasant families lived and carried out agricultural practices, sharing among them every aspect of daily living. Over time the grancie were replaced by other forms of organization still known today as the farmhouses and the fortified farms.

The choice of name The Grancie expresses the close link with the rural world and its peculiarities. The agritourism, born under a program of diversification of agricultural business, it is well integrated with the rural and natural landscape that surround it and reserves to all guests (adults and children) an authentic experience of rural tourism in contact with the land and with the horticultural crops.