Alberobello stands to the southern part of Bari province, near Castellana Grotte, Locorotondo and Putignano. The town was founded in the 15th century by Acquaviva-D’Aragona, two counts of Conversano, on land that was originally an oak forest. A typical feature of Alberobello are the trulli, white dry-stone houses with conical roofs made of lapidary stones. Inside, the trulli have a square central room communicating with the other rooms of the house via arches. Many trulli in Alberobello can be visited and the tallest trullo in the area, Trullo Sovrano, is on two floors and houses a museum. The roofs of the trulli are embellished with decorations and pinnacles of various shapes, often symbolising religious signs or signs of the zodiac. In 1996 the city of Alberobello, the heart of the Murgia dei Trulli, was declared a Heritage of Humanity site by UNESCO.
The most typical parts of the town include the Monti district, comprising 1030 trulli on a hillside; it has some of the oldest buildings still preserving the original features of construction. There is also Aia piccola, with its highly impressive network of narrow and tortuous alleyways. The ‘Monti’ district holds the trulli siamesi, all within one enclosure and each of a double shape, with a low hearth and no windows. The history of these trulli is connected to the eternal battle between love and hate. Another place of note is the church of San Antonio, in the shape of a trullo, commissioned to repel the approach of infedels. Preceded by a monumental entrance, the main room is in the form of a Greek cross and the lateral chapels are veil-shaped. The casa dell’amore (the ‘house of love’), built in 1797, is the current base of the tourism office and is the first building in the town to have been made of limestone, as testified in the inscription by the door. Another place worth a visit is the Basilica minore dei Santi Medici, housing pictures of Madonna di Loreto and the twin saints Cosma and Damiano. The town’s patron saints are celebrated on the 27th and 28th of September, when the faithful enter a frenzy adoring the sacred pictures kept in the church.
Sources: By the editorial staff Updated on: 06/08/2010
Project created in collaboration with InnovaPuglia.
Regione Puglia
Regione Puglia