The patron saints of Martina Franca are Saint Martin of Tours, celebrated on 11 November, and Saint Comasia, a martyr between the 2nd and 4th centuries, whose relics are kept together with those of Saint Martina in the minor basilica of San Martino, on Piazza Plebiscito: the current building was constructed between 1747 and 1785 over an earlier Romanesque church, raised to minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in April 1998 and declared by UNESCO a «monument messenger of a culture of peace» in September 2002. The two patrons are also celebrated together at the summer patronal feast, the first weekend after 4 July.
The name «Martina» comes from the residents' devotion to Saint Martin since the year 1000, when the first settlement arose precisely on the hill of the same name. The adjective «Franca» was added on 12 August 1310 by Philip I of Anjou, prince of Taranto, who granted the town various tax exemptions and perpetual crown status, also granting it a coat of arms with a white horse running free on a green field, to which he added the golden Angevin lily. Once perpetual crown status was lost over time, the adjective disappeared, only to be restored after Italian unification, in 1861, when the town was finally renamed Martina Franca.
