What is Casamassima known for?

The blue town, every house and church coated in copper-blue quicklime since the 1658 plague vow, the only blue village in Puglia. Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin, feudal lords of Casamassima from 1609 to 1667, who ordered the blue lime after the Bari plague. The Milanese painter Vittorio Viviani came in the 1960s and built a body of work around the blue light, naming the village Il Paese Azzurro.

When is the best time to visit Casamassima?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September through October are the months the Murge is mild and the blue centro storico photographs at its best, the lime cool against bright light. July and August reach the mid-thirties on the plateau and the painted lanes empty between two and five in the afternoon. The painter Vittorio Viviani came in the 1960s and built a body of work around the blue light; the Pro Loco still organises walks in his footsteps in spring and autumn. November through March is quiet and cool; the centro storico stays useful close to Bari. The patronal feast of the Madonna di Costantinopoli in early September is the day the vow is renewed.

Where is Casamassima?

Casamassima is a comune in the province of Bari, Apulia region of Italy, about 22 kilometers from Bari.

How do I get to Casamassima?

From Bari, Casamassima is roughly 22 km by road.

Apulia · Bari

Casamassima

The blue town of the Murge, twenty kilometers south of Bari, its centro storico painted with copper-blue lime after the 1658 plague spared its residents.

Known for

PAESE AZZURRO
The blue town, every house and church coated in copper-blue quicklime since the 1658 plague vow, the only blue village in Puglia.
VAAZ
Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin, feudal lords of Casamassima from 1609 to 1667, who ordered the blue lime after the Bari plague.
VIVIANI'S BLUE
The Milanese painter Vittorio Viviani came in the 1960s and built a body of work around the blue light, naming the village Il Paese Azzurro.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: San Rocco, 13 September

Why come

Casamassima sits on the lower Murge slopes, twenty kilometers south of Bari. The village is known nationally as the Paese Azzurro, the blue town: the houses, palazzi and churches of the centro storico are coated in successive layers of blue-tinted quicklime, probably copper sulphate, in a tradition the locals trace to Duke Odoardo Vaaz. In 1658 a plague carried by a ship into the port of Bari killed over twenty thousand residents of the capital.

Vaaz, a feudal lord of Casamassima from a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin who had bought the fief in 1609 for 76,000 ducats, vowed to the Madonna of Constantinople that he would paint his town blue if the village was spared. It was. The small church of the Madonna di Costantinopoli still stands as the vow's fulfilment, and the blue lime has been retouched on the same buildings for nearly four centuries.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Casamassima’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

By subscribing you agree to Substack’s Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and our Information collection notice.

What to see

Centro storico (Paese Azzurro)
The blue town, an entire medieval quarter coated in successive layers of copper-blue quicklime since the 1658 plague vow, unique in Puglia.
Palazzo Ducale Vaaz
Twelfth-century manor house turned ducal residence of the Sephardic Vaaz family from 1609, then of the D'Aponte family after the 1667 sale.
Chiesa di Maria SS di Costantinopoli
Small church built as the fulfilment of Duke Vaaz's plague vow, the historical anchor of the blue-painting tradition.
Chiesa Matrice
Mother church of the centro storico, the parish around which the medieval blue village organises its rites and patronal feast.
Porta Orologio
Medieval gate-tower with the civic clock, one of the access points into the walled blue centro storico, surviving from the fortified period.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Casamassima fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Living here

Population 19,294
Commuter belti
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Bari / Brindisi, 34 min drive
Regional capital Bari, 22 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 230 m
Population: 19,294
Surface area: 78.43 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Bari

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Close by