History of Francavilla Fontana

From the second half of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th Francavilla was ruled by the Imperiali, considered the best feudal lords the fiefdom had: thanks to their patronage, nobles and artists arrived who, in keeping with the times, gave the town a Baroque appearance.

Archaeological excavations carried out in 1950 on an embankment of the Canale Reale, about two kilometers from the town, demonstrated the existence of a Neolithic village, not older than 3000 B.C., inhabited by Mediterranean Siculian people before the invasion of the Ausones.

[4] Of the Roman age, on the other hand, remain basalt paving stones of the Appian Way[4] and a rustic villa discovered in Contrada San Lorenzo, along the banks of the Canale Reale, having an area of about 290 square meters and datable between the first century B.C.

[5] From the numerous archaeological finds from the Roman and Messapic periods, it has been assumed that a large city, razed to the ground in 845 by the Saracens, stretched near the Santa Cecilia and Guardiola districts in ancient times.

[9] Other scholars (including also Francesco Ribezzo)[10] believe or have argued instead that the archaeological remains found in the various districts around Francavilla belong to Rudiae, a city of Greek origin that later became a Roman colony and the home of Quintus Ennius.

[1][19] Probably, in 866,[20] some Franks who had descended as far as Bari and Oria with Emperor Louis II settled in one of the villages inhabited by the surviving citizens of the destroyed Messapian city, and formed the first nucleus of the town, which in 1155 later became a fief of the Norman baron Goffredo, who, for the occasion, was given the appellation "da Francavilla.

[26] The prince of Taranto decided to clear the thicket to find the cause of that miracle, and soon after a ruined wall (according to others, a Basilian cave) was discovered where a Byzantine icon depicting the Madonna and Child was resting.

The snowfall on January 23 deeply ruined the olive trees, thus causing the citizens to despair, who had no choice but to gather in the mother church and celebrate a solemn mass to ask Our Lady of the Fountain for help.

Inside the walls, the citizens, having seen the arrival of the Cappelletti, instead of preparing to face them, took refuge in the churches, hoping for a miracle; they even offered the Keys of the Land to the patroness of the city, to have her help in return.

In early 1568, Charles Borromeo sold the fiefdom to Giovan Battista Castaneo, Archbishop of Cassano, for forty thousand scudi; writers of the time relate that the cardinal distributed all the proceeds of the sale to the poor of Milan in a single day.

During approximately two hundred and fifty years since its founding, the Land had grown almost like a City, with the construction of new districts and the reorganization of the Red Book, in which were contained all the municipal statutes independent of those of Oria, already granted by King Alfonso, enlarged and perfected by successive lords.

During the span of the sixteenth century, the Matrix Church was enlarged in various stages and, especially after the Council of Trent, new religious orders were established:[38] after the Carmelites, the Capuchins arrived in 1570, well-liked by the population after the clash between Bonifacio and Paniscotti, and also supported by the Borromeos;[38] in 1573 it was the turn of the Friars Minor Observant,[57] also well-liked by the population, and finally, there was the arrival of the Priests of the Oratory, part of the order of St. Philip Neri: in the Land they opened some stores and in some buildings they cared for the dying and founded the first public school in the fief, in which children learned to read.

[64] One of Michele Imperiali's uncles on March 6, 1626 presented the Viceroy of Toledo with a plan for the creation, at his own expense, of a Mount of Pious Works, with the aim of helping the poor economically and properly educating children.

Subsequently, in 1644 recourse was again made to the Pope to denounce the edict issued by the bishop of Oria imposing taxation on the clergy of Francavilla of 116 ducats annually for the construction of the seminary (a matter apparently closed in 1582).

[77] Michele Imperiali, with the help of Friar Giovanni Battista Brancaccio, marquis of Rinello, general of artillery and Baglivo da Santo Stefano in Apulia, who had been given orders to go to Otranto to guard the coast against possible landings and who, having arrived in Terra d'Otranto established his headquarters precisely in Francavilla, demonstrated his loyalty to Spain with various proofs, listing all the aid given to the Viceroy during past revolutions.

In the same years as the plague there was an extraordinary invasion of caterpillars (already present in the province for centuries but never completely eliminated), which in a short time multiplied and almost entirely covered the fields; in May 1784, not knowing how to cope with such an attack, a procession was organized from the city to the chapel of St. Vitus, but the hoped-for miracle was not achieved.

On February 11, 1799, in protest, a large number of peasants and workers did not go to work;[100] in the square Giovanni Francesco del Re, Reader of the Pious Schools preached, from early morning until late evening, for freedom and the republic, calling it an institution willed by God.

[100] At dawn on February 12, the Sanfedists went out into the streets with red cockades, rifles and sabers and arrived in the square, where the Tree of Liberty, hoisted by Jacobin Nicola Semeraro a few days earlier, had been affixed.

A short time later, the Sanfedists found Nicola Semeraro, who, having fallen from the roof of his house to escape, had broken his leg and dislocated his shoulder;[102] unable to move, he was stabbed and exposed in the square until evening.

[102] Seeing the critical situation, the mayor and the men of the University met in the Royal Court, finally deciding to have a squad of twelve armed soldiers, later increased to forty, guard the town throughout the night.

Upon returning to the church, the priest Vito Nicola Alemanni, with a red cockade on his chest, shouted from the pulpit his loyalty to the king and affirmed that, thanks to a miracle of Our Lady, Francavilla had not been sacked by the Jacobins, and then urged calm and observance of the laws.

[7] In a secret article of the treaty, the Bourbons undertook to receive on the Adriatic coast, at Otranto, Brindisi and Taranto a corps of fifteen thousand Frenchmen, until peace was made with England, paying 120000 ducats per month.

[8] In this circumstance, too, the town became a center of soldiers since, under the pretext that the British had not yet left Malta, on March 23, 1802 Joseph Bonaparte ordered Saint Cyr to reoccupy Naples, placing garrisons in Pescara, Otranto, Brindisi and Taranto at Ferdinand's expense; in this way the University sent money, beds and carriages to Ostuni and Lecce.

[113] Meanwhile, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, unable to tolerate this situation, organized to eliminate all the sects: Richard Church, recently appointed Major General, left Naples in 1817 and went to Barletta to oppose the Vardarelli.

Ciro Annunchiarico, one of the leading local exponents of brigandage, tried to bring all the sects together so that they could put up more resistance to the army; in a short time he was able to find money, weapons, men and horses.

[28] After issuing a five-day ultimatum within which the inhabitants of San Marzano and Grottaglie were to surrender the brigand and at the end of which, without answers, he would destroy all the houses,[30] it was discovered that Annunchiarico had taken refuge at the Scasserba tower.

[129] In Francavilla the political event was greatly felt by the people: houses were decorated with flags, large placards with the words YES were displayed in the streets, and a stage was built in the square on which voters climbed up and down.

[130]Meanwhile, the issue of brigandage increased in importance: in 1861 a state of siege and disarmament was proclaimed in the city;[131] the Cavalrymen of Aosta also arrived, and on October 23 of that year Prefect Gemelli had an edict posted ordering the mayors to create two lists: one on brigand advocates and the other on those absent from the municipality without justification.

[131] It was also ordered that accomplices, receivers and supporters of the brigands, thieves, idlers and vagabonds, rascals, stragglers, unlicensed bearers or holders of weapons and propagators of false alarms be arrested or searched.

[143] After the outbreak of another cholera epidemic, the mayor decided that the hygienic issue in the city had become too important to continue to be ignored: therefore, after making numerous profits from the sale of land and receiving loans from the state, the resurfacing of the main roads began.