The Trulli of Alberobello

Alberobello lies in the Itria Valley of Puglia. Its trulli are houses of roughly worked limestone gathered from the fields and laid without mortar, under conical or domed roofs built of limestone slabs, each course set slightly inward from the one below. According to ICOMOS, the area is generally thought to have been granted in the mid-14th century to the first Count of Conversano by the Prince of Taranto, and the counts settled it with people moved from their other fiefs such as nearby Noci.

Tradition holds that the settlers were made to build in dry stone so their houses could be taken down quickly, which let the lord evict unruly tenants and later avoid taxes on new settlements. This is known to have happened in 1644, to thwart tax inspectors sent by the King of Naples. By the mid-16th century the Monti area already had about forty trulli, and in the 17th century Count Gian Girolamo had an inn and other buildings put up, and the village began to grow.

By the end of the 18th century the community numbered over 3,500, and in 1797 it ended the feudal rule of the Acquaviva family by obtaining royal town status from Ferdinand IV of Naples. It took the name Alberobello from the medieval Latin name of the area, silva arboris belli, and from then on few new trulli were built. The Monti quarter has 1,030 trulli and Aja Piccola 590. They were inscribed in 1996.