Alberobello - Italy - Unesco World Heritage Site | PRIMA.TV - On-line International TV

Alberobello is a small town and comune in the province of Bari, in Puglia, Italy. It has about 11,000 inhabitants and is famous for its unique trulli constructions. The Trulli of Alberobello are part of the UNESCO World Heritage sites list since 1996.In some degrees of the fourteenth century the site of Alberobello is reported by the term "Silva Arboris Belli," referring to an area rich with lush vegetation, but no permanent settlements inhabited. One of the first human settlement activities began only in the early sixteenth century at the instigation of the count of Conversano III Andrea Matteo Acquaviva d'Aragona, son of the famous Count Giulio Antonio Acquaviva, who died in 1481 at Otranto in the war against the Turks. Count Andrea Matteo introduced by the estate of nuts about forty families of farmers to reclaim and cultivate the land, with the obligation to hand over a tenth of the harvest. Its successor, the powerful Count II Giangirolamo said Guercio of Apulia (1600-1665), who had erected a hunting lodge and an inn on the spot, began the real urban jungle with the construction of a cluster of houses. The abundance of calcareous sediment and authorization of the count only to build houses with dry stone walls without using mortar, which are the trulli, contributed to the expansion of the urban sprawl. This requirement to build homes only with dry-stone of the Count was an expedient to avoid paying taxes to the Spanish Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples under the Pragmatics of Baronibus, the law in force until 1700, according to which the construction of a new inhabited primarily involved in the Royal assent and consecutive payment of taxes by the Baron to the Royal Court. In fact, in 1644, following a complaint made by the Duke Caracciolo di Martina Franca was ordered a directed inspection. To prevent the action of the Count Giangirolamo ordered the settlers to demolish homes and move away temporarily from the area. This happened in one night, so that inspectors recorded were available only scattered stones. Alberobello was feud of the Acquaviva d'Aragona accounts for several generations, until May 27, 1797, when King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon took up the instance of Alberobello and issued a decree which elevated the small village to a royal city, freeing them from feudal serfdom.