The underground city | Between stories handed down and written or legends. The ancient village in the subsoil

The legend of the small tunnels
Putignano has a history made up partly of truth and partly of legend.
Certain news regarding the presence of underground tunnels can be found in the will of the Notary Antonio Fanello drawn up on 10-7-1590, who ordered that, with his assets, an underground sewer was created that would go outside the walls from the Convent Grande. through the main door "Barsento". Following extract of the will:
Vole de più che quando l’elettori sopradetti declamassero ch’in nullo modo nci sia loco di fare beneficio et ampliatione al detto convento, che se ne habbiano a comprare delli frutti delle sue robbe tanti pannamenti di chiesa et argenteria in honore del Santissimo Sacramento, intentendosi dopo che sarà finita la fabrica del disegno cominciato, qual sa notar Giovanni Caruso et lo magnifico Pietrantonio Di Gregorio et lo reverendo fratre Vincenzo Caruso, cioè sequitare la corsia con fare abascio, appresso il cellaro niovo, il refettorio; appresso poi la dispensa et poi la cocina et, voltando appresso, un’altra casa avanti la cocina, et farsi una chiavica che vada fora la porta della terra con farci una ammuratoria abascio e sopra tutta la corsia come loro sanno.
Other underground conduits, present in the ancient village, were used for the disposal of rainwater. One of these lapped the sidewalk of today's Via Margherita di Savoia, the then perimeter of the surrounding walls and continued towards Piazza XX Settembre, which came out during excavation works in the 1970s. This tunnel was probably used to convey water in some cistern outside the town.
The testament of the Notary Fanelli also testifies to the presence of sewer pipes that from Porta Grande reached the Church of San Sebastiano (Convent of Sant'Antonio) dating back to 1595. This pipeline, which passes in front of the door of the current Town Hall in via Roma, Of which there is photographic evidence of a few years ago thanks to the images of the excavations in the Giornale di Putignano, it was most likely used to dispose of the rainwater that the slopes conveyed into the manholes near the Municipal Theater.

Stories handed down to the present day by those who have participated in the works in past years, mention the discovery of remains of bones, various tools, shards, which in some respects would fuel the hypothesis, however unproven, of someone passing through those tunnels. The future will give any answers !!