Soleto (Griko: Sulìtu; Salentino: Sulìtu; Latin: Soletum) is a small Griko-speaking city located in the province of Lecce in Apulia, Italy. The town has a total population of 5,542 and is one of the nine towns of Grecìa Salentina where the Greek dialect Griko is spoken.
In the 5th century, Soleto was elevated to the seat of a bishopric of the Byzantine Rite. In the Middle Ages it was ruled by Count Gjon Kastrioti II, son of the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti. In the 13th century the Angevine rulers of Naples chose the city as the capital of a county, later ruled by the Castro, Balzo, Orsini, Campofregoso, Castriota, Sanseverino, Carafa, and Gallarati-Scotti families, until feudal control was finally abolished in 1806. Soleto became part of the Neapolitan Republic of 1799 and was a center of the Carboneria during the Italian Risorgimento.
The Soleto Map, the oldest geographical map in the Western world, was discovered in Soleto by Belgian archaeologist Thierry van Compernolle of Montpellier University on 21 August 2003.
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