is very rich, noble, civilized and filled with people, and is so wealthy that he envied any other in this region." The town also established ecclesiastical organizations, with four wealthy parishes, several hospitals, some religious confraternities and nine religious institutes. The Age of the Principality In 1579, at the height of its prestige but suffocated in debt, the city was sold to Duke Gian Francesco di Sangro, who won for his heirs the title of Prince of Sansevero. Consequently, it lost its rank as capital, which passed to Lucera, and the governor of the province and the court was transferred. Accustomed to self-government, the citizens chafed under the tyranny of their new feudal lords. Many families of the old Sanseveresi aristocracy immediately chose to leave the city and those who remained watched helplessly as the era known as the "Regime of Forty" unfolded. This was an era of decline for the city, despite the promotion of the city to Episcopal seat in 1580. On July 30, 1627, a catastrophic earthquake almost razed the town to the ground and killed eight hundred inhabitants and an unspecified number of foreigners. Reconstruction was slow, and hindered by the plague epidemic of 1656 and 1657 (during which nearly three thousand people died). In the eighteenth century, the city was rebuilt with a markedly Baroque appearance. On April 16, 1797, Ferdinand IV visited San Severo and there he reviewed the Regina regiment. On April 25, Prince Francis I of the Two Sicilies and Queen Maria Carolina, came there to visit and attended a solemn mass in the cathedral. In February 1799, following a fierce reaction to the proclamation of the Jacobin republic, French troops, commanded by Generals Guillaume Philibert Duhesme and La Foret plundered the city with terrible violence. The victims, between citizens and soldiers, were about four hundred and fifty. 19th Century Feudalism was abolished in 1806 and San Severo was the sixth largest city of the kingdom by number of inhabitants. It became the capital of one of the three districts and then sub-prefecture. In 1819, the ancient palace Decurionate inaugurated in the Teatro Real de Bourbon, the first Italian district and one of the first in the south. After the French occupation, the city became a key stronghold of the Carbonari, so that Giuseppe Mazzini long dreamed of making San Severo the starting point of the riots of 1820. In 1826, the