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.

Where is Casamassima?

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

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.

22 km / 14 mi

Nearest hub (Bari)

19,294

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Casamassima sitson 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.

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Gallery

6 photos · scroll →

Known for

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.

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 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.