Giovanni Carlo Tramontano, Baron of Sorrento, Count of Matera (born in 1451 as Giovanni Carlo Tramontano, Baron of Sorrento, died in 1514) was an Italian nobleman who belonged to the ancient feudal noble family of the barons of the House of Tramontano.
The Baron of Sorrento was often called "Giancarlo" or "Gian Carlo", short for Giovanni Carlo.
The Baron Giovanni Carlo Tramontano of Sorrento was on October 1, 1497, given the city of Matera in the Southern Italy region of Basilicata as his county by the King in Naples, Ferdinand II of Aragon.
Giancarlo Baron Tramontano was given the title Count of Matera and built the famous Castello Tramontano ("Castle Tramontano").
After 9 years as the ruler of Matera the Count almost lost his power in 1506. King Ferdinand II did announce on October 9, 1506, that he intended to remove counties and baronies from several counts and barons in the kingdom because he wanted to give them to a group of Spanish noblemen.
In hope of being able to keep his county Count Giovanni Carlo and his wife Countess Elisabetta Restigliano went to the royal court in Naples where the Countess gave the Queen a gold necklace with 25 very valuable pearls worth 700 ducats.
As a result, the King permitted Count Gian Carlo Tramontano of Matera to keep his county.
The aristocracy and the people of Matera considered the Count arrogant, a tyrant and a ruler without mercy—especially because he demanded a lot of taxes from the people so that he could live in luxury.
On December 28, 1514, the Count demanded that the aristocracy and the people pay him 24.000 ducates—so that the Count could pay his debts.
The people wouldn't accept this. On December 29, 1514, Count Giancarlo and his wife Countess Elisabetta went to mass. When the Count and the Countess came out of the church the Count was beaten to death by a group of rebellious men. The Countess was allowed to escape.
After the murder the church bells rang constantly to mark the death of the Count. The people of Matera celebrated this event.
The King in Naples considered the murder of Count Gian Carlo a political assassination and a way to hit the throne. Therefore, he sent a commissary to Matera to solve the crime. Four innocent men were hanged but the guilty criminals were never found.
Il Conte di Matera ("The Count of Matera"), a 1957 film directed by Luigi Capuano, starring Virna Lisi and Otello Toso.
The House of Orsini is an Italian noble family that was one of the most influential princely families in medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini family include five popes: Stephen II (752–757), Paul I (757–767), Celestine III (1191–1198), Nicholas III (1277–1280), and Benedict XIII (1724–1730). In addition, the family included 34 cardinals, numerous condottieri, and other significant political and religious figures.
Matera is a city and the capital of the Province of Matera in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy. With a history of continuous occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic, it is renowned for its rock-cut urban core, whose twin cliffside zones are known collectively as the Sassi.
The Real Teatro di San Carlo, as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent to the Piazza del Plebiscito. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world, having opened in 1737, decades before either Milan's La Scala or Venice's La Fenice.
The province of Matera is a province in the Basilicata region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Matera. It has an area of 3,447 square kilometres (1,331 sq mi) and a total population of 201,133; the city Matera has a population of 61,204. There are 31 comunes in the province. The province of Matera is bordered by the province of Potenza in the west and south, the region of Calabria also to the south, the region of Apulia to the east and north, and by the Ionian Sea to the southeast.
Giovanni Antonio (Giannantonio) Orsini del Balzo was a southern Italian nobleman and military leader; he was Prince of Taranto, Duke of Bari, Count of Lecce, Acerra, Soleto and Conversano, as well as Count of Matera (1433–63) and of Ugento (1453–63).
Raimondo Orsini del Balzo was a nobleman from the Kingdom of Naples. He was Count of Soleto (1382), Prince of Taranto (1399–1406), Duke of Bari, Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples, Gonfalonier of the Holy Roman Church. He was a member of the influential Orsini family of Rome. Although he is considered one of the most important people in the history of southern Italy, relatively little is known about his life.
The D'Agostino family is a Sicilian noble lineage originated at least in the thirteenth century, Sicilian strain of historical noble family Agostini Fantini Venerosi Della Seta Gaetani Bocca Grassi from Pisa, family of noble origin, Earls of the Kingdom of Italy, Earls Palatino of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, noble patricians of the Maritime Republic of Pisa. This family dressed different political-military roles in Sicily.
The Duchy of Naples began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the reduced coastal lands that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the sixth century. It was governed by a military commander (dux), and rapidly became a de facto independent state, lasting more than five centuries during the Early and High Middle Ages. Naples remains a significant metropolitan city in present-day Italy.
Leonardo III Tocco was the last ruler of the Despotate of Epirus, ruling from the death of his father Carlo II Tocco in 1448 to the despotate's fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1479. Leonardo was one of the last independent Latin rulers in Greece and the last to hold territories on the Greek mainland. After the fall of his realm, Leonardo fled to Italy and became a landowner and diplomat. He continued to claim his titles in exile until his death.
Casabona is a comune and town with a population of about 4,000 people in the province of Crotone, in Calabria, southern Italy.
Gentile Virginio Orsini was an Italian condottiero and vassal of the papal throne and the Kingdom of Naples, mainly remembered as the powerful head of the Orsini family during its feud with Pope Alexander VI. Though best known as Lord of Bracciano, during his lifetime he bore many titles, among which Count of Tagliacozzo, Vicovaro and Anguillara, Lord of Cerveteri, Knight of the Order of Emellino (1463), Constable of the Kingdom of Naples and Gonfalonier of the Roman Church. The aforesaid fiefs were all confiscated in favor of the Colonna or the Borgia family during Virginio's conflict with Naples and the Pope.
The Duchy of Alvito was a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Naples, in southern Italy.
The Blind Woman of Sorrento is a 1953 Italian historical melodrama film directed by Giacomo Gentilomo and starring Antonella Lualdi, Paul Campbell and Enzo Biliotti. It was shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome. The film is based on the novel of the same title by Francesco Mastriani and is the third time that it has been filmed. It is set in the nineteenth century in Sorrento in southern Italy.
Gjon II Kastrioti, was the son of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the Albanian national hero, and of Donika Kastrioti, daughter of the powerful Albanian prince, Gjergj Arianiti. He was for a short time Lord of Kruja after his father's death, then Duke of San Pietro in Galatina (1485), Count of Soleto, Signore of Monte Sant'Angelo and San Giovanni Rotondo. In 1495, Ferdinand I of Naples gave him the title of the Signore of Gagliano del Capo and Oria. While in his teens, he was forced to leave the country after the death of his father in 1468. He is known also for his role in the Albanian Uprisings of 1481, when, after reaching the Albanian coast from Italy, settling in Himara, he led a rebellion against the Ottomans. In June 1481, he supported forces of Ivan Crnojević to successfully recapture Zeta from the Ottomans. He was unable to re-establish the Kastrioti Principality and liberate Albania from the Ottomans, and he retired in Italy after three years of war in 1484.
Gian Carlo is an Italian masculine blended given name that is a combination of Gianni and Carlo. Notable people known by this name include the following:
Castello Tramontano is a 16th-century fortification in Matera, that was built to control the local population.
Antonello Petrucci, also known as Antonello d'Aversa was a Baron and secretary to King Ferdinand I of Naples.
The House of Acquaviva is an aristocratic Italian family from Naples. The head of the family was Duke of Atri in the Abruzzo from the 15th century, and Count of Conversano after an Orsini family marriage in 1546, among other titles.
The Conspiracy of the Barons was a revolution against Ferrante of Aragon, King of Naples by the Neapolitan aristocracy in 1485 and 1486. King Ferdinand the First, also known as Ferrante, aimed at dispelling the feudal particularism, strengthening the royal power as the only unquestionable source of authority. In that political and financial context a crash between the barons and the royalty was inevitable.
Giovanni Carlo is a blended masculine given name that combines Giovanni and Carlo that is often shortened to Gian Carlo, Giancarlo, or Gian-Carlo. Notable people with this name include the following: