Gioacchino Murat hosted in 1813 in Putignano, increased the wealth of the country.
Gioacchino Murat
General Joachim Murat abolished the servitude of the land that had reduced the peasants to poverty. Thus increased the wealth of the country, the common pastures became private surrounded by dry-stone walls, the forests were the first occupants and the planters of vineyards and gardens escaped the duties. This brought fiscal improvement and well-being to the citizens after so many years of regime changes and raids that completely absorbed the attention of the administrators. Murat arrived in Bari without knowing it and spent one night (between 15 and 16 April 1813) in Putignano, a guest in the Villa near the small church of S. Giovanni belonging to Raffaele Marascelli, on his trip to Puglia. In exchange for the hospitality received, Murat gave Marascelli a white horse.
The Tree of Freedom
The last of the three Olmi trees planted by the French in 1806 solemnly vigorously stands in front of the Town Hall, in memory of the new ideas of Freedom and Equality of democracy. When the plebs were planted, they accompanied the feast with songs, sounds and the trees as was customary at the time were blessed by the clergy. This happened, despite the fact that the democratizers were acted with fisci and threats to life, for this reason there were blood crimes and bullying everywhere. The horrors of popular turmoil were made even more acute by the intervention of those who, with the occasion, in order to affirm their supremacy, gave vent to rancor and hatred, each obviously claimed to be able to assert their party with the will to overwhelm the opponents. In this way they tried to oust the Cavaleans of Malta with the complicity of the people and destroyed the coat of arms which, rebuilt with public money, in 1747, surmounted the arch of Porta Barsento.