Naples, Matera & Alberobello: History, Art, Nature & Flavors

Highlights

• Matera: Capital of Culture
• Alberobello: The Trulli
• Nature & Cuisine

What's included

Itinerary

1. 1

   Matera

   3h

   The Sassi of Matera are two quarters of Matera, the Sasso Caveoso and the Sasso Barisano, formed by buildings and rocky architecture carved into the rock of the Murgia of Matera and inhabited since prehistoric times. In 1993 they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Together with the Civita district (built on the spur that separates the two Sassi), they constitute the historic center of the city of Matera. The term "Sassi" refers to the two quarters that constitute, together with the "Civita" and the "Piano", the historic center of Matera. The plural declination, therefore, derives from this duplicity and not, as many believe, from the fact that a dwelling or a room within these districts is called "stone". The Sassi are arranged around and at the bottom of two valley grooves, shaped by the passage of water, channeled into the so-called "grabiglioni" [1] on the bottom of the same. The Sasso Barisano, located along the road that went out of the city towards Bari, turned to the north-west, contains sculpted portals and friezes. The Sasso Caveoso, which faces south towards Montescaglioso, recalls the shape of a theater's cavea, with the houses arranged in steps. Inside there are various neighborhoods, districts and districts named as follows: u lammòrde, u paravèse, u pendàfeche, u mòlve, u chianèdde, u casalnàve. To divide the two valleys rises the rock of La Civita, which houses the Romanesque Cathedral. At the foot of the Civita and at the upper edge of the Sassi lies the Piano, the post-medieval historical center, beyond which lies the post-displacement Matera. On the opposite side of the Gravina di Matera, there is the Murgia plateau, with rupestrian churches scattered along the slopes of the ravines, part of the institution of the Murgia Materana Park and protected by it. "Natural caves, underground architecture, cisterns, enormous enclosures, farmhouses, churches and palaces, succeed and coexist, excavated and built in the tuff of the ravines" writes Pietro Laureano in his book Giardini di pietra.

2. 2

   Alberobello

   1h

   Famous for its characteristic houses called trulli which since 1996 have been protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site [5], it is part of the Valle d'Itria and the Murgia dei Trulli. The historian Pietro Gioia conjectured that the name Alberobello derived from Silva alboris belli, with the meaning of "forest of the war tree" and this derivation, without documentary feedback, has long been endorsed by later historians. However, later studies [6] [7] underline that the first toponym with which the locality was known was Silva Alborelli: thus it results from the oldest document to the knowledge of scholars, namely the investiture diploma of May 15th 1481 with which King Ferrante of Aragon assigned the assets of the deceased Count of Conversano Giulio Antonio I Acquaviva d'Aragona to his illiterate son Andrea Matteo. In this document [8] we read Silva Alborelli in the province of Terra Bari. The name Alberobello became official on 22 June 1797 from the first City Council. In this circumstance the names of Ferrandina were also proposed in honor of King Ferrante of Aragon and Ferdinandina in honor of King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. [Without a source] However, until the nineteenth century the alternative terms Arborebello or Albero Bello were adopted.

3. 3

   Parrocchia Santuario Basilica S.S. Cosma E Damiano

   1h

   The mother church of Alberobello is dedicated to the saints Medici Cosma and Damiano, patrons of the town. Their cult was introduced in 1636 by Count Giangirolamo II, who was devoted to it because of a pardon received from his wife Elisabetta da Rocca Padula during pregnancy, with which she gave birth to her first-born son, Cosimo. Before the establishment of the parish, the church depended on the parish of Noci. The bishop of Conversano Gregorio Falconieri recognized it as a sanctuary in 1938, and in 2000 Pope John Paul II elevated it to a minor basilica. [12] The current building, in neoclassical style with a Latin cross-shaped layout, dates back to the end of the 19th century. It replaces a small chapel dating back to 1609 dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie with under the ossuary, enlarged in 1725, in 1784 and in 1852. The project, drawn up by the Alberobello architect Antonio Curri, in 1881 received the approval of the parish priest Domenico Morea and town Council. The budget was 16,000 lire, the realization cost about double. Work began in 1882 and lasted almost three years. The church was opened for worship in 1885 on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, but at the time its construction was largely incomplete, since only the nave and the façade were built. The left arm was completed in 1948 and the right arm in 1956, while the planned octagonal dome was never built. The façade has two bell towers, the one on the left with a sundial and the one on the right with a clock with Roman numerals. The sacristy, already present from 1784, at the beginning of the twentieth century from the new project of the Curri also the old sacristy was demolished and rebuilt the new one and restored and completed in 1968. The church contains numerous relics: the most famous are those of the Santi Medici

4. 4

   Parrocchia Sant'Antonio di Padova

   1h

   The church was built between 1926 and 1927 on land at the top of the Monti district on the initiative of the bishop mons. Domenico Lancelotti. From 1945 it became the second parish of Alberobello and from 1952 it was led by Guanellian priests. The singularity of the building, which has a Greek cross plan, is in the reproduction of the features of the trulli that surround it. The conical roof typical of the trulli is also found in the dome, 21 meters high, and in the other bell tower 18.30 meters. There is a relic of Saint Anthony of Padua, the statue of the same saint "Saint Anthony gives the bread to the poor" in papier-mache work by Raffaele Carrella (1877-1950) of 1927 brought to Alberobello by the priest Lippolis, the papier-mâché of Saint Rita of Cascia donated by the devout Pietro Basile, a small statue of Saint Joseph in papier-mâché and one in ceramics of the Immaculate Conception, plus in the archives the statue of the Pietà. There is also a bas-relief of San Luigi Guanella, a work by Adolfo Ugo Rollo, and a painting by San Padre Pio from 1999 by the painter S. Mazzin. Other trullo-shaped churches are found in Locorotondo in the hamlet of San Marco in the Selva di Fasano parish of the Addolorata.

Before you go

Location

Italy