It dates back to the mid-fourteenth century structure still be habitable? yet Reflect the needs and habits of a person after 7 centuries? The answer is yes. The prime example are the Trulli. Taking up the prehistoric model of the tholos, shaped structure of the Late Bronze Age domed, Trulli internally today make up the historic center of Alberobello. The dry construction, without mortar, circular, It seems to have been imposed on farmers in the fifteenth century by the Counts of Conversano, to escape to an edict of the Kingdom of Naples which imposed taxes on every new urban settlement. The interiors of a trullo are generally distributed around the central compartment. The thickness of the walls and the lack of presence of windows ensure an optimal thermal equilibrium: heat in winter and cool in summer. The roof is composed of a pseudo-dome of horizontal limestone slabs positioned in increasingly smaller concentric series - the so-called "chianche" (inside of) and thinner "chiancarelle" (on the outside). Every home has different font decorations on the vault, often esoteric, religious or propitiatory. Alberobello is a country of the Murgia hills of Puglia, website at equal distance between the Adriatic and the Ionian. On the eastern hill is the new the towns with modern architectural features,on the other top disposed to the west s'allineano the trulli in an urban agglomeration, subdivided into two districts, Mont and Aia Piccola, Both national monument. Trulli are a universal value architectural example as a unique testimony costtuiscono, or at least exceptional, of a civilization and of a lost cultural tradition, and o ff er an example of a type of construction and architectural complex that illustrates a significant period of human history.

Criteria for Admission

Since December 1996 the trulli of Alberobello are a UNESCO world heritage site. The World Heritage Committee decided to include the site on the basis of cultural criteria judged to be of outstanding universal value, being an outstanding example of a form of construction of buildings resulting from prehistoric techniques, which it has survived intact and functional even today.

Art and Culture History

Alberobello was born between 1400 and the 1500, by some farmers here mandat by the Counts of Conversano, then owners of the land. The law in force, at that time, in the Kingdom of Naples, in particular the Pragmatic de Baronibus, He submitted every new urban settlement to permit directed, It oteneva upon payment of the taxes due. To avoid the heavy tax, the Counts of Conversano imposed to farmers, sent to colonize what was then an oak forest, only build precarious buildings, they had not the digit value of the stability of ordinary dwellings. Hence the trulli, built in dry stone, to facilitate the demolition, in such a way that in case of royal inspection does not scorgessero the traits of an urban settlement, clearly abusive. This story of insecurity has gradually transformed into a story of civilization, the stone civilization dry. In 1797 then, a group of brave alberobellesi, tired of the precarious condition, He went to Taranto to ask for help to King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, who sent a Decree by which this small village became free from any claim tax. The Alberobello agricultural landscape is distinguishing trait by a thick vegetation of almond and olive trees typical of the karst terrain, mentre dalle rocce calcaree stratifcate viene estratto il materiale utilizzato per la copertura dei trulli. The trulli houses are in fact dominated by the use of external stone sheets, the "chiancole" lining the cone and create the wonderful urban center, unique in the world, that all now come to admire.

Trulli

Trulli are an extraordinary example of the human capacity and adatamento testmonianza than the incredible intellectual resources and the will to live of every human being can produce. In a project of human settlement on the territory in which it was forbidden to build, if not precariously, and in which the only abundant material to build the stone was, Trulli were the solution found by the first peasants to colonize Sold antca Selva.Alberobello is the only country in the world was born and raised as a country of trulli. Trulli are built on the rock diretamente, without foundation, with crudely worked stone blocks resting on one another, without lime fssarli between them and then covered by a conical strutura of small gray limestone slabs (chianchiarelle, in local jargon). Apparently similar to each other, in reality di ff er for both the design of the plant, which often presents niches with different functions, both simple motvi paintings on chiancole, both for the shape of the chimneys and pinnacles. The special feature of Alberobello is derived not so much from the presence of these creations, ff use in different parts of Puglia, as by the fact that they, far from, as elsewhere, animal shelters or styling tools, were the houses of the first autocitone populations, put together side by side. The alberobellese community has adapted to a harsh environment, It has grown with great difficulty, beginning with those of health and hygiene in order, ma, as he described in an unparalleled Tommaso Fiore in his "A nation of ants", has been able to withstand up to transform his weakness into his strength and to win the right to enter the World Heritage List for the uniqueness and beauty of its history. They are the districts Monti and Aia Piccola, which together with the Sovereign Trullo, Casa D'Amore and Casa Pezzolla form the perimeter of the site generally designated as the "Trulli of Alberobello".