5100 x 3365 px | 43,2 x 28,5 cm | 17 x 11,2 inches | 300dpi
Ubicazione:
Alberobello, Bari, Puglia, southern Italy
Altre informazioni:
Alberobello (pop: 10, 000) stands in the middle of the triangle formed by Bari, Brindisi and Taranto, in Puglia, southern Italy, 20km from the Adriatic coast to the north. Although the origins of the trulli (singular: trullo) in the provinces of Bari and Taranto possibly date back 5, 000 years, the oldest of the existing trulli in the town of Alberobello, which has the largest concentration of these unique buildings, were constructed in the 16th century. A trullo is a circular structure of rectangular limestone rocks placed in rising rows, without mortar - dry-stone, to a conical roof capped by a decorative shape. “Trullo” comes from the Greek word “troullos” meaning dome. The popular explanation for trullo architecture: during the Middle Ages, permanent dwellings were heavily taxed. To avoid payment of these taxes, the trulli were built in such a way - without mortar - that, when a taxman was known to be in the neighbourhood, the houses could be dismantled within a few hours, leaving a large pile of stones and a crowd of homeless peasants with innocent eyes; with the taxman’s departure, the trulli were rebuilt. Some modern writers state there are 100 trulli in Alberobello; others claim 1, 000. There are quite a lot of them. Now plastered inside and out to keep out the draughts, trulli have lost their flat-pack ability. Alberobello has been designated an International Human Resource as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, being “an exceptional example of a form of building construction deriving from prehistoric construction techniques that have survived intact and functioning into the modern world”. Says it all.
