Unique holiday homes in Puglia - the trulli

The trullo (plural - trulli) is a circular-shaped house with a conical roof. Actually only the conical roof is called "trullo" and the whole house "casèdde". These buildings made of stacked up stones are age-old. The architecture of the trulli has changed little through the centuries. The circular houses are made from stone from the lime stone valley without mortar. On a mostly square base the roof is made up of circles of lime stone tiles that become narrower towards the top. The roof's pinnacle has the shape of a disk, a globe, a cross or a cone. On the old trulli one can still often see calcimine painted symbols on the roofs. Under the storage cones man and beast used to live. When the family became bigger, a new trullo was build right next to the old one. The more cones a building had, the bigger the family was and the richer the peasant. Since the year dot many architectural advantages of the trullo are known. Because of its structure with its thick walls from massive natural stone with only small windows, the trullo stays pleasantly cool in the summer and in the winter it keeps the warmth from a fireplace or nowadays heating for a long time.
On the fields the trulli were used as warehouses or during harvest season even as a dwelling. Other than that they were not paid much attention in the old days.
The "trullo-capital" is Alberobello in Apulia, where the peasants of the count of Conversano, Gian Girolamo II. di Acquaviva, settled. It is said that the development of the trulli as dwelling houses is owed to the count of Conversano. The story was about - and we know this topic very well in our century, too - taxes. Duties for fortified brick-built settlements were levied. In order to avoid this tax liability, the count's peasants had to build those circular houses, that were disassembled quickly to a stack of stones before a royal control. When the inspection was over, the peasants had to rebuild their trulli - a tiring method.
Alberobello was declared part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 1996. The town is made up of two districts: "Rione Monti" and "Aia Piccola", with more than 1500 trulli. Today most of the trulli have been converted into shops, restaurants or holiday accommodations as well.
Throughout the "Valle d'Itria" and in the Salento, too, you will find trulli, often surrounded by fields or olive groves. Many trulli in Apulia in the meantime have been turned into holiday homes or apartments.

Trulli in Puglia