The patroness of Scanzano Jonico is Mary Most Holy Annunciate, celebrated on 1 May. The town was originally under the control of the Basilian monks of Sant'Elia di Carbone, later passing under the rule of Pedro de Toledo, who had the baronial palace built there: a feudal building with a square plan, an inner courtyard and a crenellated tower, today home to municipal offices, restored with consolidation works designed in 1998 and carried out from 2001. Attached to the palace is the small chapel of the Theotokos, recently reconsecrated, on whose portal stands a bas-relief of the Annunciation dating from the year 1000.
Along the coast stands the Torre del Faro, later used as a lighthouse for fishermen: it belongs to the simplest type among the coastal towers built in the kingdom, with a quadrangular plan and truncated-pyramid shape, a single chamber halfway up the base earthwork reached by flying stairs, a slit on the seaward façade and, on the roof, a watch shelter for lookout. Scanzano Jonico was a hamlet of the municipality of Montalbano Jonico until 1974, when it became an independent municipality.
