What is Ostuni known for?

Whitewashed centro storico on three hills, lime-painted every spring since medieval plague measures, the single defining image of the town. Surrounding plain of monumental olive trees, some over a thousand years old, the largest concentration of ancient cultivated olives in the Mediterranean. Late fifteenth-century cathedral at the top of the centro storico, with a rose window of twenty-four rays unique in southern Italy.

When is the best time to visit Ostuni?

Apr–Oct. April through June and September through October are the months Ostuni works: olive plain in flower or harvest light, the white walls glowing in mild evenings, the Adriatic eight kilometers away warm enough for swimming by mid-May. July and August touch thirty-five degrees and the centro storico fills with day-trippers from Bari and Brindisi; weekends in August are shoulder to shoulder in the upper alleys. Late afternoon and after dusk are the times to walk, when the white walls cool and the crowds thin. The Cavalcata di Sant'Oronzo in late August is the patronal pageant. November through March is quiet, several centro storico trattorie close, but the lime-white town in winter raking light is the photograph the postcards do not show.

Ostuni is a comune in the province of Brindisi, Apulia region of Italy, about 53 kilometers from Taranto.

How do I get to Ostuni?

From Taranto, Ostuni is roughly 53 km by road.

Ostuni, Brindisi

Known for

CITTÀ BIANCA
Whitewashed centro storico on three hills, lime-painted every spring since medieval plague measures, the single defining image of the town.
OLIVE PLAIN
Surrounding plain of monumental olive trees, some over a thousand years old, the largest concentration of ancient cultivated olives in the Mediterranean.
GOTHIC CATHEDRAL
Late fifteenth-century cathedral at the top of the centro storico, with a rose window of twenty-four rays unique in southern Italy.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

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Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Oronzo di Lecce, 25 August

Why come

Ostuni sits on three hills above the Adriatic coastal plain, eight kilometers inland in the southeastern Murge. The whitewashing that gives it the name Città Bianca is medieval in origin, a hygienic measure against plague that survived as the local building convention; the entire centro storico is painted white in lime every spring and reads as a single bright mass from the surrounding olive country. The territory has been inhabited since the Paleolithic; the Messapii founded the urban nucleus before the Romans absorbed the region.

The town joined the Norman County of Lecce in 996. In 1507 it passed to Isabella, Duchess of Bari, then to her daughter Bona Sforza, queen of Poland, who fortified the coast with watchtowers against Ottoman raids in 1539. The Cattedrale, a late-Gothic facade with a rose window of twenty-four rays, anchors the upper town. The olive landscape around the commune holds some of the oldest cultivated trees in the Mediterranean.

What to see

Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta
Late fifteenth-century Gothic cathedral at the highest point of the centro storico, with a rose window of twenty-four rays unique in Puglia.
Centro storico
Whitewashed old town on three hills, lime-painted every spring against plague tradition, the single bright mass that names the Città Bianca.
Piazza della Libertà
Lower civic square outside the medieval walls, with the Guglia di Sant'Oronzo, an early eighteenth-century baroque obelisk to the patron saint.
Museo di Civiltà Preclassiche della Murgia Meridionale
Archaeological museum in the centro storico, holds Delia, the 25,000-year-old skeleton of a pregnant woman found in a Murge cave.
Piana degli Ulivi Monumentali
Surrounding olive plain with thousands of monumental trees, some over a thousand years old, the protected Puglia olive heritage zone.

We recommend

Where to eat and stay

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to — a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

CieloRistorante
Two Gambero Rosso forks (83/100) for Cielo, and a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Masseria Le CarrubeVegetariano
Masseria Le Carrube has a Gambero Rosso listing to its name.
Masseria MorosetaRistorante
Masseria Moroseta carries a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Osteria Piazzetta CattedraleRistorante
Osteria Piazzetta Cattedrale holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Osteria RicanattiRistorante
Osteria Ricanatti has a spot in the Michelin Guide to its name.
Restaurant 700Ristorante
Restaurant 700 holds a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Paragon 700 Boutique Hotel & SPAHotel
Paragon 700 Boutique Hotel & SPA carries one Michelin Key, plus a La Liste score of 90.
La Sommita RelaisHotel
A place in the Michelin hotel guide, at La Sommita Relais.
VISTA OstuniHotel
A Leading Hotels of the World listing, at VISTA Ostuni.

Living here

Population 30,143
In-betweeni
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Train station in the comune
Nearest airport Bari / Brindisi, 1 h 29 min drive
Regional capital Bari, 1 h 17 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 218 m
Population: 30,143
Surface area: 225.56 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Taranto

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.

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