Friday 11th April 2008

The first Truli houses were built in 1400 and were simple conical buildings consisting of a single room and built entirely of dry stone without mortar. It is said that the Count of Alberobello, Gian Girolamo Acquaviva D'Argona (what a name!) had the idea of building them this way in order to avoid paying a punitive housing tax to the King of Naples. When the royal authorities arrived they simply took the house apart, although reconstruction must have taken some time. From about 1600 the cone was mounted on a square of walls thus creating a more spacious living area. Alcoves were added for bedrooms and larger structures were built incorporating a number of Truli cones to provide a multi-room house. The stipulation of dry construction was also relaxed and some two storey buildings were built. Although the largest concentration of Truli buildings in Alberobello (over 1000 in the Rione Monti area) are given over to tourism (shops, restaurants, bars, holiday homes), many hundreds of others in the town are still lived in by local people.
We walked the 2 km into the centre of the town and did a tour of all of the Truli areas and, as you will see from the photographs, they were very impressive. During the walk back we spotted a wine museum and decided to take a look. It was well laid out with sections on rural life, the Truli dwellings, viticulture and wine and all with English explanations. The visit was concluded with a brief tasting of their wines, very good but not cheap.
Photos: A terrace of Truli; Truli roofs in the Rione Monti area; The Sovereign Trulo built for a priest in the 18th century and is a very unusual two storey structure built without mortar; One of the Truli still lived in by the locals.