Situated on one of the roads in the region is the Via Traiana. Halfway between Bari and Brindisi there are the ruins of this ancient city whose origins seem to date back to the Bronze Age (XV – XIII BC). Of particular interest are the tombs messapiche and their kit hand painted ceramic vases that can be seen in the archaeological museum next door. The first news of Egnazia (Gnathia) are provided by the Greek geographer Strabo, at the end of the first century BC, and by the Latin poet Horace, who passed in 38 BC on the occasion of one of his famous voyage from Rome to Brindisi. By ancient authors, as well as from the later itinerary sources, we are informed almost only the position of Egnazia; the sea, on the border between Peucezia (Terra di Bari) and Messapia (current Salento), halfway between Bari and Brindisi along what in ancient times was one of the main roads of the region.
The monumental center of the city include: the civil basilica, ilsacello Eastern gods, the graves messapiche, the so-called amphitheater, the forum, while the areas of life they develop across the Via Traiana. For centuries between the fourth and sixth back the two early Christian basilicas of Egnazia.
The destruction of the city is traditionally linked to the descent of the Goths; but at least until the ninth century Egnazia existed, even if reduced to a small fortified settlement on the acropolis.