Stone Shelter: The Trulli of Alberobello

Stone Shelter: The Trulli of Alberobello

Amanda Roelle

Guided by Amanda Roelle

The Town of Alberobello, in Italy’s boot-heel region of Puglia, is home to an urban concentration of unique and very well preserved buildings called the Trullo (singular form of trulli). We will explore this vernacular building typology in the various forms that only exist there.

The trullo is a single-story dwelling, made of layers of dry, roughly worked limestone gathered from neighbouring fields, with a cone-shaped roof built up of corbelled limestone slabs. The oldest trulli date from the 16th century and about 1,600 of these structures remain in the town today. The trulli of Alberobello were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.

We will visit the Museo del Territorio di Alberobello, including Olive Oil Museum and the outstanding Trullo Sovrano. Abandoned trulli dot the fields of the surrounding area called the Valle d’Itria. They mostly house souvenir shops, like the Alberobello in Minitura Shop, restaurants, and guest houses to support the tourism industry which has exploded in recent years thanks to the growing interest in the trulli.

Walking the streets of Alberobello you will experience the scale and material of the trulli in a way you cannot by entering the other buildings.

Buildings you'll visit

  • Museo del Territorio di Alberobello/(including Olive Oil Museum)
  • Trullo Sovrano
  • Church of Sant'Antonio
  • Streets of Alberobello
  • Alberobello in Minitura

Make a reservation

€79per person

Basic information

Please note than once you have booked the tour/visit you’ll recieve an email with the complete information.

Calendar

Availability

Tuesday to Sunday

Watch

Duration

3 hours

Dialog

Languages

English

People

Max / Min People

Max 10 / Min 2

Pictures

Amanda Roelle

About Amanda Roelle

Amanda is founder and principal architect of an organization called Archistrati, providing architecture, sustainability and educational services to community organizations, businesses, and individuals. At the moment she is working on consulting on green building projects and organizing sustainability workshops with a couple community organizations.

Having obtained her architecture degree from The Ohio State University in USA in 2000, she started working as an architect in Chicago, but after a trip to Italy in 2010, she felt in love with the region and its architecture so she decided to radically change her live and relocate in the small Italian town of CeglieMessapica, in Puglia region, Italy, about 30km from Alberobello (where her tour takes place).

She first moved there with plans to work as an architect, but also to share the beauty of the local architecture, -famous by its vernacular housing known as Trulli- with visitors through organization of tours and workshops.

As an architect she gained experience in the fields of historical restoration and preservation, she has given numerous lectures and has lead workshops on architecture and sustainability to a wide range of participants in the corporate world, universities and local community groups.

If you are unfamiliar with Puglia, it has a wealth of architectural treasures for those interested in architecture and history. Most notably there is a building type unique to Puglia called trulli that exists primarily in the Valle d’Itria. Alberobello is a city where the trulli have been preserved and is listed as a UNESCO site. Another UNESCO site exists called Castel del Monte, a symbol of medieval military architecture built by the Empower Fredrick II in the 13th century. Nearby is another UNESCO site, Matera, a settlement cut into the rock that has been preserved. In addition to the UNESCO sites, the beautiful white-stone villages of Puglia are also unique and interesting.