The overall objective of the Adriatic Cross Border INTERREG IIIA Com- munity Initiative Programme entitled “Adriatic New Neighbourhood Programme” is to promote social-economic development and cooperation among the nations of the Adriatic Area; therefore, it is an instrument that can contribute more than any other to the creation of an Adriatic Euro-Region.

The areas eligible for the Programme on the Italian front are the Provinces belonging to the Regions along the Adriatic coastline while, on foreign shores, the entire territory of the Eastern Adriatic Countries (PAO): Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, and Montenegro is eligible to participate.

The programme aims to increase awareness by the local communities in- volved of their belonging to one Adriatic community, whose creation is the goal of the programme. Therefore, the programme aims to help the different populations involved achieve the same living standard, one that is also closer to EU standards.

Some history The origin of Grottaglie (from the Latin «Cryptae Aliae» = many, different grottos) can be found in rupestrian settlements that followed one another in the area ever since the Palaeolithic era.
The first human groups gradually abandoned the depths of the “ravines” in order to settle in the isolated hills on which they created their fortified villages. In this way several hamlets were formed including Casale Cryptalearum, a primitive centre of the current town centre of Grottaglie.
The Normans (11th century) donated the Hamlet to the Archbishop’s Re- fectory of Taranto. At the end of the 14th century, the Bishop’s feud was fitted with a reinforcement wall, together with the Castle and the Chiesa Matrice (Main Church).
Difficulties and political crises from the 15th to the 17th century resulted in the “cohabitation” of two different feudal jurisdictions: one was Episcopal and one was lay. The 17th century was very difficult and poor under the badly tolerated Spanish domination. Jurisdiction battles among the Archbishops of Taranto and lay feuds and constant popular upheavals characterised the following century until the abo- lition of feuds. A climate of general political disorientation and the growing phenomenon of banditry accompanied the first urban expansion “outside of the walls”, up until the unitary period when the events of Grottaglie were shared with those of many similar centres in Southern Italy

For many centuries, ceramic activities have represented the main economic- production source for Grottaglie. According to historical figures, at the end of the eighteenth century there were 42 factories and a population of approxima- tely 5,000 employees.
The abundance of clay in the area initially favoured the development of the so-called figulino (potter) artisan activities.
The roots of artistic-artisan production go back very far, according to the huge amount of ceramic findings that date back to the classical and Magno- Greek era.
For a long time activities were mainly of an artisan nature, aimed at the production of bricks and accessories for everyday use. Diffusion of the production of majolica in Grottaglie dates back to the beginning of the ei- ghteenth century, with subsequent specialisation in two fields, “arte ruagnara” and “arte faenzara”: the first related to the production of common use with strong connections to the world of agriculture; the second is of a deco- rative and ornamental nature, aimed at a much more elite use (Fig. 56). The production types and techniques currently tend to integrate and inter- twine in the same workshops, where the ceramists, no longer divided up into categories, work everyday towards the experimentation and research of new forms of expression.