Puglia · Lecce
Campi Salentina
A Salento plain town fifteen kilometers north of Lecce, rebuilt after the Saracen raids of 926 and later raised to a marquisate.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Campi Salentina is on our list
It holds Borghi Autentici.
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 22 min from Lecce
- Population
- 9,663
- J14°
- F15°
- M16°
- A19°
- M25°
- J31°
- J34°
- A33°
- S28°
- O24°
- N19°
- D15°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 28° and coldest in February at 14°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Campi Salentina sits on the Salento plain at forty-seven meters, fifteen kilometers north of Lecce. Menhirs around the territory point to Bronze Age occupation, but the town as such dates to 926, when Saracen raids destroyed the nearby villages of Afra, Bagnara, Firmignano, Ainoli and Terenzano and pushed survivors together at the current site. The Normans came in the eleventh century; Tancred of Altavilla donated Campi to the Bishop of Lecce, and the castle followed in the centuries after.
In 1522 the fief passed to the Paladini family, and after Maria Paladini married Giovanni Enriquez, the town was elevated to a marquisate in 1627. The town earned the title of città by presidential decree in 1998. The coat of arms is a sheaf of wheat: locals call Campi the granary of the Terra d'Otranto, and the surrounding plain is olive groves and vines.
The menhirs, the tenth-century founding, and the seventeenth-century marquisate mark three separate layers on the same plain: a scattering of prehistoric stones, a town built from the wreck of five destroyed villages, and a feudal seat raised in status centuries later without ever moving from that original site. What holds the layers together is the plain itself, flat ground given over to wheat and now to vines, which explains why a granary emblem and an emperor's summer castle could belong to the same small place.
How to get there
From Bari (BRI), about 2 h 10 min by car.
Lamezia Terme (SUF) is about 4 h 56 min away.
By car from the center of Lecce 22 min, Bari 1 h 58 min or Salerno 4 h 35 min.
Coming from Bari?
Coming by train into Taranto? Campi Salentina is about 1 h 21 min away by road.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Castello dei Paladini-Enriquez
The castle stands at the center of the old town, its walls marking the line between the summer residence Frederick II built and the marquisate palace the Paladini and Enriquez families made of it afterward.
Chiesa Matrice di Santa Maria delle Grazie
Collegiate mother church in the centro storico, built and remodelled between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, with a treasury of paintings and church plate.
Centro storico
Walled Salento old town around the castle and the chiesa matrice, with stone palazzi from the Paladini and Enriquez period.
Menhir di Campi Salentina
Bronze Age standing stones around the territory, evidence of pre-Roman occupation in the wider Salento megalithic landscape.
Living here
Could you live here?
Campi Salentina meets our one rule for a small town.
- 9,663 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Lecce, a city of 94,187, is 22 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 9,663, down 8.1% since 2015
- Nearest city Lecce, 22 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Lecce, 14 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €475 to €670 per m² to buy, €1.90 to €2.60 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 92% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 4, very low hazard
- Brindisi airport (BDS), 43 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Bari, 1 h 58 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
3% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Senegal, the Gambia and Albania, against 9% across Italy. There are 278 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 25% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Lecce province ranks 81st of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Lecce, 14 km as the crow flies, and it is a major one. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 474 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 26 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Puglia spends about €1,500 a month, €440 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €545 a year for water, on the Puglia average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone C, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 15 to March 31, up to 10 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. Under 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 2% in a high or medium one. They show no residents in a high landslide zone.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
GRANARY OF OTRANTO
Coat of arms is a sheaf of wheat; the Salento plain around the town has been the granary of the Terra d'Otranto since the medieval period.
FREDERICIAN CASTLE
Built by Frederick II in 1220 as a summer residence, later turned into the Paladini-Enriquez marquisal palace after Philip IV of Spain made Campi a marquisate in 1627.
SALICE SALENTINO
Negroamaro and Malvasia Nera vineyards on the surrounding plain, part of the wider Salice Salentino DOC production area.
Common questions
- What is Campi Salentina known for?
- Campi Salentina is a Salento plain town fifteen kilometers north of Lecce, rebuilt after the Saracen raids of 926 and later raised to a marquisate.
- Where is Campi Salentina?
- Campi Salentina is a comune in the province of Lecce, in Puglia, at 47 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Campi Salentina?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Brindisi (BDS), about 43 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Lecce to Campi Salentina?
- About 22 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Campi Salentina?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Campi Salentina?
- Vernole, Grado and Gabicce Mare.
- How many people live in Campi Salentina?
- 9,663 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Campi Salentina a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Campi Salentina is a small town that meets our one rule. The nearest city, Lecce, is 22 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Lecce, 14 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 92% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
The numbers
- Elevation: 47 m
- Population: 9,663
- Surface area: 45.88 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Campi Salentina appears in
Similar
Towns like Campi Salentina
What all six share with Campi Salentina: on the Adriatic coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · near sea level
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