The history of the place is connected to the presence in the area of a byzanthine monk from Egypt, St. Ilarione, who evangelized the Ionian coast in the 4th century. The earliest historical mention of the town go back to the 16th century, when a group of farmers from Motta Santa Lucia established here. But it is possible that in antiquity this was the site of the ancient Aprustum mentioned by geographer Tolomaeus, and a later mention in 1310 of a church of Sanctus Ylarius de Argusto, in a church taxation document is actually a proof of the existence of the village.