Guagnano, located in northern Salento, northwest of Lecce, includes the hamlet of Villa Baldassarri. The fiefdom was originally part of the Agro Oritano and, at the end of the 13th century, of the County of Lecce. Having become a possession of the lords Orsini del Balzo, princes of Taranto, it then passed to the baron Matteo de Adimaris and from time to time to the Filomarini, dukes of Cutrofiano.
The etymology of the name could derive from an ancient dialect term referring to the presence of marshes rich in water or, according to the historian Giacomo Arditi, from risparmio, referring to the fertility of the lands and pastures.
Among the most noteworthy architectures is the Mother Church, dedicated to the Madonna Assunta, dating back to the mid-18th century, which has a refined baroque façade and includes ten altars. It incorporates a 15th century building erected on the site of the discovery of an ancient image of the Virgin of the Rosary. Equally imposing and richly decorated is the Church of the Madonna del Rosario, from 1755, which preserves the relics of four martyrs and a valuable statue of the Virgin.
Every year the municipality of Guagnano hosts one of the most evocative living nativity scenes in Salento.
On the outskirts of the town, among vineyards and farms, stands the house-museum called Vincent City, the hermitage of the artist Vincent Brunetti, who designed and built it with recycled materials. The house and the artist appear in the documentary film "Italian Sud Est" and in the video clip of the song "Karaoke" by Boomdabash with Alessandra Amoroso. It is the destination of a secular pilgrimage: every day tourists, the curious, visitors from all over the world go there for a total and regenerating immersion in the dreamlike and fairytale art of Brunetti, an eclectic and unprejudiced student of great Italian artists such as Francesco Messina, Giacomo Manzù and Arnando Pomodoro.
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