52
some barons are like sovereigns in their lands
Paolo Maria Doria, Vite Civile
FORTY KILOMETRES TO THE SOUTH EAST, Martina Franca is an even prettier little city than Conversano. On a hill at the highest level of the Murgia del Trulli it dominates the fertile Val d’Itria and, although nowadays its white walls are masked by high-rise flats, the centre remains unspoilt, with narrow white-washed streets and small Baroque palazzi that have wrought-iron balconies. A local historian, Michele Pizzigallo, describes it proudly as “belonging to yesterday, like a flower always in bud.”
Founded in the tenth century by refugees from the Saracens, Martina expanded in the fourteenth, being granted many privileges and adding “Franca” to its name. Raimondello del Balzo Orsini built a castle in 1388 while a hundred years later its lord was Francesco Coppolo, Count of Sarno, whom King Ferrante made his finance minister and then destroyed. In 1507 Martina Franca became a duchy and was given to Petraccone III Caracciolo del Leone, Count of Buccino in Basilicata. The family descended from ‘Sergianni’ Caracciolo, Grand Seneschal of Naples and lover of Queen Giovanna II, who amassed a vast fortune before being murdered. The Caracciolo del Leone took their name from the lion on their coat-of-arms, to be seen all over Martina Franca.
The Masaniello of Martina Franca, who led the 1647 revolt here, was a blacksmith, Vivantonio Montanaro, called ‘Capo-di-Ferro’, (‘Iron Head’). Duke Francesco I routed him by importing 300 mercenaries. But generally strife was less bloody, mainly wrangles over the ducal feudal dues that were levied by professional tax-gatherers. They caused chronic resentment, which was why most dukes preferred to spend much of their time at Buccino, until the accession of Petracone V in 1655.
Duke Petracone was always loyal to the Regno’s Spanish King and when only thirteen served in Spain against the Portuguese. On his return two years later he married Aurelia Imperiali of Francavilla. After killing the Count of Conversano, he and his brother Innico were imprisoned, but so many nobles interceded that they were soon released. When he came out of prison in 1668, Petracone began building a palace.
The old Orsini castle was pulled down, replaced by a palazzo, so beautifully proportioned that it has been attributed to Bernini. The main façade has a balcony with iron scroll-work running the length of the building beneath a long line of windows, and a tall gateway flanked by two great columns leading into a large court-yard. Pacichelli thought it “a work of perfection... very like the Casa Pamphilij in Piazza Navona at Rome”, noting that each façade has sixteen windows, and that there is a gallery, a theatre and a roof-garden. He reminds us that “The Lord Duke is also Marquis of Mottola... Lord of Bovino... and Baron of many other lands in Calabria and Lord of Locorotondo nearby, which produces horses and mules and supremely good milk, and is best for cheese.”
A portrait of Petracone V shows a self-satisfied face with a big nose verging on the bulbous, a low forehead and a pointed beard. According to Pizzigallo, he was “narrow and obstinate with his family, haughty and offhand with local gentry, open and generous with the people.” He lived in great splendour. When his son Francesco, Count of Buccino, married Eleanora Gaetani in 1700, Martina was illuminated for nights on end and horsemen carrying torches serenaded the palazzo, which was lit by splendid fireworks.
The duke had a favourite, Gaetano Faraone, an avaricious tailor, who became both informer and adviser. He ran everything in Martina Franca, but acquired some dangerous enemies, among them the Count and Countess of Buccino. When Petracone died in January, 1704, Faraone was immediately put in a dungeon and accused of dominating the late duke by witchcraft, with the aid of Nardantonia Casparro and Grascia di Mascio, “women commonly reputed to be expert at spells and magic.” Nardantonia’s daughter testified how one night the tailor had come to her mother’s house with dough from which five crosses were made. “The said Faraone crushed each in turn, stamping his feet as he did so crying ‘Devil, Devil, Devil, Beelzebub, give me entire ownership of the will and desires of Don Francesco, Count of Buccino, as I have over the Duke his father!’” He then placed the crosses in a bag, saying that he would drop them in a well. Five pieces of dough were found in a cistern at his house, wrapped in paper on which was written “Gaetano Faraone”.
When interrogated in February Faraone was very ill because “he had struck his breast with a stone while calling on God to pardon his sins.” He was placed in a “horrible dungeon” where he was found dead in May, the official cause of death being “gangrene of the bladder.” Forty years later, some citizens of Francavilla Fontana accused Francesco II of murdering him. He was so alarmed that he contemplated giving the duchy to his son and going into a monastery, but eventually escaped with a fine of 20,000 ducats.
Francesco II made feudal dues even more burdensome, with a new poll-tax. Martina Franca was divided into two parties; the duke’s followers and the moderates, the Ducalisti; and the radical borghesi, called Universalisti. However, as feudal lord the duke controlled elections to the commune and the appointment of most officials, including the mayor, and during the eighteenth century his vassals grew still more frustrated. Petracone VI, a straight-forward soldier who succeeded in 1752, did his best to make life easier, consulting both Ducalisti and Universalisti, but after seven years, exasperated by constant litigation, he handed the duchy over to his son.
Francesco III, who became duke in 1772, was much liked, his love of the country and interest in agriculture endearing him to the peasants. He and his wife, Stefania Pignatelli, modelled their little court on the royal court at Naples, plays being regularly produced in the palace theatre. In 1773 they commissioned Domenico Carella to paint the rooms of the piano nobile; the Mythology Room, the Bible Room and the Arcadia Room. As Rococo decoration they are superb, especially the Arcadia Room. On the ceiling are painted the Four Seasons. On the walls you can see the duke and his court. Francesco, in striped breeches and waistcoat, carries a tricorne hat while Duchess Stefania has a towering mass of powdered hair. They are surrounded by their courtiers, the local nobility, in a fête champêtre with fiddlers, a flautist and a huntsman with a hunting horn, and a background of country people. A beaming Carella watches from his easel in a corner. There are dogs everywhere, since the painter adored them.
Despite feudal dues, mules and horses brought prosperity to Martina Franca, as can be seen from its Rococo palaces. The best are Palazzi Panelli, Stabile, Martucci and Conte Barnaba, all graceful (yet surprisingly restrained for the period) and all built by the same unknown architect. The civic buildings are equally elegant, the Torre dell’ Orologio (1734) and the Palazzo della Corte (1763) in what is now Piazza Roma. Both saw many angry confrontations between Ducalisti and Universalisti.
Count de Salis, who, with Archbishop Capacelatro, visited the duke at his masseria at San Basilio on their way from Bari to Tàranto in 1789, recalled Francesco III’s friendly, unaffected manners. Dinner at the masseria, the Casa del Duca, was “a plain, almost rustic repast”. During the meal, the archbishop sang the duke’s praises to de Salis for preferring country life to the pleasures of the court at Naples.
Next morning Duke Francesco took de Salis to see his flock of 3,000 sheep and the dairy farm where cheese was made from their milk. All were purebred pecore gentili, descendants of the white Apulian sheep admired by the Romans, although by this date the hardier black sheep with a higher milk-yield was becoming more popular. On the way to the sheepfold the party met a band of shepherds, who walked before their flock carrying a banner, and playing a horn, an oboe, bagpipes and a curious local drum. They were also shown the duke’s horses, mules and donkeys, at a stud near the masseria.
When Francesco III died in 1794, feudalism died with him, even if legally it lingered on for a few more years. His son, Petracone VII, died prematurely in 1796 and the next duke, Placido I, was only eleven. After the Universalisti welcomed the Neapolitan Republic, the city was sacked by Cardinal Ruffo’s Sanfedisti and swelled by 7,000 recruits from the Murgia dei Trulli, whose wilder elements ripped up floors in a search for hidden money, plate or jewels. Silks and linen, china and furniture, wine, cheese and salami, were flung out of the windows to gangs waiting below. Some women had rings pulled off their fingers or earrings torn out of their ears.
Predictably, Universalisti supported the Napoleonic regime. So did Duke Placido, whom Murat made Esquire to the King, a high court appointment. He died at Martina Franca in April 1815, a month after Murat’s fall.
In 1816 the restored Borbone monarchy issued a decree confirming the abolition of feudalism, although Placido’s sickly little son, Petracone VIII, retained the palace with much of his wealth. When he died in 1827 the male line of the Caracciolo del Leone became extinct, the title passing to his sister Argentina. Through her it went to the Dukes of Sangro.
Sold in 1914, the palace became the Municipio, but in recent years a programme of systematic restoration has given back the state rooms something of their charm. For over a decade a music festival celebrated throughout Europe has been held annually in the courtyard.