MARGHERITA DI SAVOIA

Margherita di Savoia was founded around the third century BC, and since then it was at the centre of one of the main roads for trade, Via Salaria (Salt road). In Roman times it was a residential area near the so-called Salinae Cannarum (Salt evaporation pond of Cannae), but in 1105 the Count Goffredo the Norman gave the Bishop Rogerius of the Diocese of Cannae (San Ruggiero, patron of Barletta) the hamlet of Sancta Maria de Salinis. Bishop Ioannes, his successor, gave the territory to the Templars of Barletta. However, Frederick II Hohenstaufen confiscated all property of the Templars and nationalized the salt evaporation pond; the territory under the Suevian family enjoyed a particularly prosperous period, but this declined with the advent of House of Anjou. Between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, the hamlet was hit by a serious outbreak of malaria and the survivors abandoned the homeland seeking refuge in nearby Barletta. What remained of Salina was renamed "Saline di Barletta". In early 1500 the salt evaporation ponds were leased to local landlords. But towards the end of 1600 the descendants of the salt workers emigrants in Barletta began to return to their land resuming the processing of salt. In mid 1700 the Bourbon King Charles III ordered the construction of a modern system for extracting and processing salt. But the property remained in the hands of few, while the wealth was concentrated in the hands of nobles and clergy, people working salt lived in absolute poverty. Murat promulgated in 1813 the first organic law on the administration of autonomous manufacturing tobacco and salt: the Saline of Barletta was recognized at the municipal separate administration; the Director of Salina would have been also Mayor. In 1879 the town name was finally changed to Margherita di Savoia, in honour of the first Queen of Italy.

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