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The civic coat of arms
of Surano is marked by a blue background on which a sword is represented
 diagonally.
There are no historical documents about the rise of the first urban centre, so
we have got only some hypotheses. Very probably, the first centre rose thanks to
the arrival of the people who survived the destruction of the near village,
Suranello by the Goths. The poor people were attracted, probably, by the good
climate and the fertility of the land. During the Norman time the situation got
better and better: the king Tancredi Of Altavilla, in 1190, gave the feud to
Gabriele Guarino. The Guarinos went on governing this small village even when it
was incorporated into the Principality of Taranto. In 1618 Marco Guarino gave
the feud to Ottavio Guarino, and he had in return 16,000 dukedoms. That family
ruled the centre until 1806 when the feudal system was suppressed. The small
village was invaded and devastated by the Turks a lot of times, in 1480, and
also after, and each time it was rebuilt. One of the most famous local people is
Giuseppe Cartani, who lived in the XX century. He taught for many years at
Surano, and it was a point of reference for all his pupils. He was given a
golden medal by the Ministry of Education for his fervour.
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