Moustached Pupa

The Pupa Baffuta is a precious handicraft object produced in the historical workshops of the ceramics district of Grottaglie.
The legend says that in the 18th century a vine-dresser from Martina Franca got married to a beautiful girl from Grottaglie. The lady, coming from Grottaglie, had to spend her wedding night with the feudal lord, according to an ancient medieval practice that was still in force, the “ius primae noctis”, and the vine-dresser was logically unhappy about this. So he decided to dress up as a woman and sacrifice himself to please the lord. And that’s what he did. He dressed up as a woman in magnificent clothes and went to the castle, forgetting to trim his moustache.

When he arrived in the prince’s presence, the deception was obvious, so at first the lord ordered his execution, but then after a hearty laugh, knowing that the deceiver had a fine vineyard, he ordered him to bring to the court all the wine he had obtained from his land in amphorae with his transvestite features, otherwise he would be killed. The vine-dresser went to all the shops in the neighbourhood to have amphorae made in his likeness. His sons produced around seven hundred of these anthropomorphic amphorae so that the vine-dresser could spill his good wine and save his life and the virginity of his beloved. This is how the characteristic artefact was born from an unsuccessful stratagem and the death threat of a medieval feudal lord.