Coreggia, Metropolitan City of Bari, Italy

Coreggia, Metropolitan City of Bari, Italy

Coreggia, Metropolitan City of Bari Italy

The first settlement of the area began only in the early 16th century at the initiative of the Count of Conversano, Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva d'Aragona. He allowed about forty peasant families from Noci to settle here and cultivate the land, on the condition that they give him a tenth of their crops. In 1635 his successor, Count Giangirolamo II (1600–1665), built an inn with a tavern and an oratory and began the urbanization of the forest by constructing a few small houses. The expansion of the settlement was helped by the abundance of limestone, karst formations, and calcareous sedimentary rock, as well as by the count’s permission to build houses only with dry stone walls, without mortar; these would become the characteristic trulli. This requirement to build with dry stones was a strategy by the count to avoid paying taxes to the Spanish viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples. The center of nearby Alberobello was built along the course of the ancient Cana river, where Largo Giuseppe Martelotta is now located. Alberobello remained a fief of the Acquaviva d’Aragona family until May 27, 1797, when King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon elevated the small village to the status of royal city, freeing it from the feudal control of the counts. On June 22, 1797, the first mayor, Francesco Giuseppe Lippolis, was elected. Alberobello is the only inhabited town with an entire district of trulli and is considered the cultural capital of the trulli in the Itria Valley.
Recommended airport
Bari (BRI)
Points of interest
  • Coreggia
Nearby destinations
  • Puglia a 28.59 km
  • Bari a 47.82 km
  • Taranto a 37.20 km