Giuseppe Zurlo


Giuseppe Zurlo, also called Giuseppe Zurolo, was an Italian jurist and politician.
He is a descendant of the noble Neapolitan Zurolo family, also known as Zurlo family.

Biography

He born in Baranello in 1757, he descendant of the noble Neapolitan Zurolo family, also known as Zurlo family.
A member of the Freemasonry, in 1784 he became Scottish Master of the aristocratic lodge La Vittoria of Naples, elevated by the Grand Lodge of London to a provincial Grand Lodge. In 1813 he was Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Naples.
From a young age he held highly prestigious judicial and administrative positions within the administration of the Kingdom of Naples, up to that of Minister of Finance, under Ferdinand I, and Minister of the Interior during the French government and during the riots of 1820. As Minister of the Interior, Giuseppe managed the process of abolition of feudalism, decreed with a series of provisions approved by the sovereigns Joseph Bonaparte and Gioacchino Murat between 1806 and 1811.
He decreed the transfer of disputes between the barons and the municipality to the feudal commission, removing them from the ordinary judiciary. The commission, an extraordinary judiciary whose procedures reflected the vertical logic typical of the executive and whose sentences were final, proved to be much faster and more effective in resolving disputes and in executing the law.
A staunch supporter of the need for a radical change in the system of government, Giuseppe, through his personal life experience, knew first-hand the ills that afflicted the populations of the South. In addition to the economic and social problems of his homeland, Molise, he had a thorough knowledge of the conditions of Calabria, where he stayed on two occasions: the first time, as a member of the commission set up to investigate the earthquake of 1783, and a second time, in 1790, when he was a judge of the Gran Corte della Vicaria.
On this occasion he was given the task of carrying out a survey of the "defenses" of the Regia Sila and a verification of the occupations and usurpations of various lands carried out by local owners to the detriment of the royal state property.
In 1827 he became the president of the Academy of Sciences. He remained poor, heavily in debt and ill, in his last phase of life and no longer attended the sessions of the Academy.

Death

He died in Naples in 1828, his remains are preserved there, in the ossuary of the SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini brotherhood.

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Dedications

  • In front of the rebuilt church of San Michele Arcangelo in Baranello, there is a town square that bears his name Largo Conte Zurlo, formerly Largo Zullo.
  • There is a monument with a bust depicting the minister of the same name in Largo Conte Zurlo. The monument was also rebuilt after the earthquake in southern Calabria in 1783, which also hit the Molise region. In the monument there are two tombstones, in which the one written with Roman numerals indicates the original date of foundation, dating back to 1892, while the other written in Italian indicates the date of its reconstruction, with the inauguration on 19 October 1997, by the then provincial and municipal administration of the region.

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