Trulli Houses and Taxes

Meaning beautiful tree, the Puglia's Alberobello landscape is covered with conical homes known as "trulli".

Victoria Abbott Riccardi:

Legend has it that the mortarless construction of these huts also served a clever purpose. According to the Municipality of Alberobello, Ferdinand l, ruler of the Kingdom of Naples (1458-1494), gave the Acquaviva family a forested fiefdom – eventually called Alberobello – perhaps as a reward for fighting in the Crusades. The family let small groups settle there to till the land in exchange for certain privileges. However, since feudal lords had to pay taxes on settlements, the Acquaviva family ordered the labourers to build their shelters (trulli) with no mortar. That way, the peasants could knock down their dwellings before the king's tax collectors arrived and quickly rebuild them after they left.

Laura Stortoni-Hager:

The restored, modernized “trulli” now have bathrooms and bathroom doors, of course. The simple, sturdy furniture is generally handmade by local craftsmen, and made mostly of olive wood. The hearth is the source of heat in the winter, and for this reason there is a flue in the ceiling. Puglia is a fairly hot southern region, and in the summer the stones protect one from the hot sun. In the winter the thickness of the walls keep the warmth inside.

The “trulli” remind one of houses you see in the Greek islands, or on the Southern Italian Aeolian islands. The whiteness that pervades the towns and villages is refreshing to the eye and to the mind. I encourage everyone to visit Puglia, to see not only the “trulli” of Alberobello, but also other architectural marvels of this ancient land and its scenic coastline.

UNESCO:

The trulli, typical limestone dwellings of Alberobello in the southern Italian region of Puglia, are remarkable examples of corbelled dry-stone construction, a prehistoric building technique still in use in this region. These structures, dating from as early as the mid-14th century, characteristically feature pyramidal, domed, or conical roofs built up of corbelled limestone slabs. Although rural trulli can be found all along the Itria Valley, their highest concentration and best preserved examples of this architectural form are in the town of Alberobello, where there are over 1500 structures in the quarters of Rione Monti and Aja Piccola.

The property comprises six land parcels extending over an area of 11 hectares. The land parcels comprise two districts of the city (quarters or Rione Monti with 1,030 trulli; Rione Aia Piccola with 590 trulli) and four specific locations (Casa d’Amore; Piazza del Mercato; Museo Storico; Trullo Sovrano).

The extent and homogeneity of those areas, the persistence of traditional building techniques, together with the fact that trulli are still inhabited make this property an exceptional Historic Urban Landscape.

Trulli (singular, trullo) are traditional dry stone huts with a corbelled roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley in the region of Puglia. Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small-scale landowners or agricultural labourers.

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