Alberobello

Previously we mentioned that a holiday in “Terra di Bari” is not only a bathing stay. Alberobello is the real proof of the above. UNESCO World Heritage since 1996, this territory is twenty kilometres away from Monopoli and about fifty kilometres away from the capital, Bari. Its particularities are the trulli, conic stone roof houses of the sixteenth century built without the use of mortar. Basically, they are buildings realized by the exploitation of the huge availability of limestone in the area. At the base of this construction technique turns out that there was a specific economic motivation: the will of feudal lords to escape from taxes claimed by the Reign of Naples for the establishment of new residential areas. A tax loophole which evidentially sharpen the local workers’ mind, able to not build precarious houses despite the absence of mortar. There is a lot to see: the sanctuary dedicated to Saints Cosmos and Damian; the parish of St. Anthony of Padua, shaped like a trullo, too; and Casa Pezzolla, a historical neighbourhood of Alberobello with the highest concentration of the adjoining trulli. Not without reason, this agglomeration has been completely restructured between 1993 and 1997, and since then, it is home to the Museo del Territorio and its exhibition of tools, findings and documents proving the local people’s lifestyle. You mustn’t miss it!