What is Alberobello known for?

1,500 corbelled drystone cones across two quarters, inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1996 as a living vernacular landscape. The Counts of Conversano enforced mortarless building so the village could be dismantled and escape Spanish viceroy taxation. The only two-storey trullo, built around 1750 by the Perta family, the technical limit of corbelled construction.

Where is Alberobello?

Alberobello is a comune in the province of Bari, Apulia region of Italy, about 48 kilometers from Taranto.

Apulia · Bari

Alberobello

The Itria valley town built entirely of trulli, 1,500 corbelled limestone cones in two quarters, UNESCO since 1996.

48 km / 30 mi

Nearest hub (Taranto)

10,248

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Alberobello sitsin the Valle d'Itria, forty-five kilometers southeast of Bari. Two quarters of the town, Rione Monti and Aja Piccola, hold more than 1,500 trulli: limestone cones built from corbelled drystone, with conical or pyramidal roofs piled course by course without mortar. The technique is prehistoric and still in use across the Murge, but nowhere else is the density and preservation what it is here. The Counts of Conversano enforced drystone construction on their tenant farmers to dodge a Spanish viceroy's tax on permanent settlements: a building that could be dismantled in an afternoon did not count as a town. UNESCO listed the trulli in 1996. Some are houses, some are shops, some are inhabited by the same families that built them. The Trullo Sovrano, the only two-storey trullo, was built around 1750 and now functions as a small museum.

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Gallery

10 photos · scroll →

Known for

Rione Monti
The larger of the two trulli quarters, a thousand cones running down the hillside, mostly converted to shops and accommodation.
Aja Piccola
The smaller residential quarter, about four hundred trulli, still occupied as primary housing and quieter than Rione Monti.
Trullo Sovrano
The only two-storey trullo in town, built around 1750 by the Perta family, now a small museum of trullo construction and daily life.
Chiesa di Sant'Antonio
Twentieth-century church built in trullo form, with a conical drystone dome rising over the Rione Monti.
Basilica dei Santi Medici Cosma e Damiano
Eighteenth-century basilica dedicated to the town's patron saints, anchoring the modern quarter above the trulli.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the months the Itria valley is green and the trulli are walkable without sweat. July and August push past thirty-three degrees and the Rione Monti fills with day-trippers from the coast; by ten in the morning the main streets are shoulder to shoulder. Late afternoon and after dusk are the times to walk, when the cones cast long shadows and the crowds thin. November through March is quiet, many trulli-shops close, but the white stone in winter light is the photograph the postcards do not show.