The oldest in Europe

The Putignano Carnival has very ancient roots, probably dating back to before the church institutionalized and recognized this festival as a transition between Advent with Christmas and Lent with Easter. Some scholars, in fact, argue that there were propitiatory pagan rites aimed at the cult of Dionysus, god of ecstasy, intoxication and the liberation of the senses, dating back to a few centuries before Christ when the then small town was under the dominion of Magna Greece whose area of colonies developed throughout central-southern Puglia from Bari and the southeast of Bari, up to the Tarantina and Salentina area.

The officially recognized birth of the Putignano Carnival dates back to 1394. In that year and precisely on the day of December 26, it was decided to translate, that is, to move, the relics of Saint Stephen from the abbey of the same name, which is located on the south coast of Monopoli, to defend them from any attacks, devastation and looting by pirates or Saracens, then very common.

 

In medieval times that area of ​​Monopoli, still identified today with the name of contrada Santo Stefano, thanks to the natural inlets on the coast, became a welcoming port, as evidenced by the iconographic representation of jacob philipp hackert and by an oil canvas present in the Reggia di Caserta always by the same author.

 

The abbey, still existing today and used as a private residence, was built by the hand of Goffredo, count of Conversano, who, between 1083 and 1088, founded a Badìa, which united with a series of Benedictine monasteries of the Cluniac congregation scattered throughout the Southern Italy served to testify the Norman hegemony in the whole area.

 

From 1317 onwards, the Benedictine monks' stay in the abbey was followed by the residence of the feudal lords of Putignano, the Knights of the Gerosolimitano Order, who became the Order of the Knights of Malta after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Saracens. The latter already owned a domus intra moenia used as a hostel and hospital. The Order decided to move to the abbey and refortified it in order to control the traffic to the Holy Land with more meticulousness.

 

The journey of the relics between the abbey of Santo Stefano and the Church of S. Maria la Greca in Putignano, took place in the form of a procession to defend them from any malicious persons along the way. The peasants of Putignano, who at that time were intent on making offshoots of the vines in the vineyards of the area surrounding the village, enthusiastic and amazed, joined the procession of the Knights and once they arrived in the village they improvised songs and dances for the joy of having on site the protection of a saint. And every year, on the same day, they offered songs, dances, enthusiasm and lots of joy as thanksgiving.

 

Still today the remains of Saint Stephen, contained in the same reliquary that saw him as the protagonist of the above transfer and datable, according to the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, between the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, are preserved in the church of Santa Maria. The feast of the patron saint of the city and the rite of the Propaggini, which opens the Carnival of Putignano, are celebrated on the same day, December 26 of each year.