Visit to the king of the trulli of Alberobello: the Trullo Sovrano

 

Let's visit the Trullo Sovrano, the biggest trullo of Alberobello. Let's dive in this journey in time and in the tradition of one of the symbols of Puglia, which is among the most known in the world.

Tell me first symbol of Puglia that comes into your mind.

You may have thought about Alberobello and about its skyline made of trullis that with their grey cones animate the slope of the monumental district. Every place in the world has a monument that is a symbol and, even though each area of Puglia has its own, the trullo has a honor place in representing the region.

In this blog post, I tell you about a particular trullo, one of those that you can’t ignore when you visit Alberobello: the Trullo Sovrano.

Leggi in italiano

The peculiarity of the Trullo Sovrano

If you’ve even entered a trullo, you may have noticed that as beautiful and particular as it is, it’s a narrow environment, with small spaces used as rooms and potentially a wooden loft and staircase.

The Trullo Sovrano is different. We’re talking about the biggest trullo of Alberobello, that stands in front of you once you pass the church dedicated to Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian.

Its façade is large, white with the cone that looks like a pointed hat. In the ‘60s, it was the set for the film Casanova ’70 starring Marcello Mastroianni and in the latest years has showed its best  during the light events of Alberobello: it was the canvas for Klimt’s The tree of life and honoured the 700^th anniversary of Dante’s death.

It’s made of several environments that date back different periods, an older part of the 17^th century and a more “recent” one of the 18^th century, which was committed by the priest Cataldo Perta to use it as a chapel. Actually in the room that today welcomes us after crossing the door, once there were the relics of the saints Cosmas and Damian.

Later, in the 19^th century, the trullo was bought by the Sumeranos and used as a house. Now, you can visit as it was in the past, when the family lived here and you can dive in the life of that time.

The visit of the Trullo Sovrano

Let’s open the access door. We enter in a large room: books about Puglia and its tradition are on the central table and on the shelves along the walls, for those who want to buy them. Among them a door on the wall stands out: it’s the original door of the trullo. It’s 300 years old and still perfectly functional.

The visible stones on the walls draw little arches that seem to be decorations, but actually they’re much more: they’re the elements that allow the trullo to stand.

The trullo is a self-supporting structure and built in a way that it can unload the force along the load-bearing walls without the use of mortar (even though this one is one of the first example where it was used). Being so large, the Trullo Sovrano needed an important structure and the rich archbishop had the possibility to have the best materials and artisans for his project.

Now you can see the stones and can appreciate the skill with which it was built, but when people lived here , the walls were covered with white lime, which helped to spread the light in the space and to disinfect the environment.

Our visit of the Trullo Sovrano starts from here.

The master bedroom

Today we’d say that it’s in an unusual position, but for the time when the Trullo was built, it was completely normal to place the bedroom next to the entrance, because it gave an advantage in terms of security.

In the room, there’s a crack in the wall that opens directly in front of the access door. It’s the “saiettèr”. The rich used this crack to scare any ill-intentioned with a shotgun. Here we find it in front of the bed and when it wasn’t used, it was closed with a wooden wedge, otherwise you can imagine how drafty it could be!

Look quietly at the old furniture of this bedroom, examine the embroidery of the nightgown hanging in  front of the window, but remember that the landlords are still there, in their frames looking at you from above on the wall.

Still feeling observed, we cross the little door to go out of the bedroom for a change of environment.

The servants’ kitchen

Originally, in this room there was a big oven and with big I mean that it occupied half of the room. They put wood in it from a little external window and also the neighborhood worked here: just to give you the idea of how many people were engaged to make it work.

When other ovens spread in the town, this one, which was awfully big and expensive to feed and to maintain, it was abandoned and now there are just the chimneys to remember it, ourside of the trullo.

Nowadays, instead of the oven you can see a sideboard for the production and the storage of bread with pans, laundry boards, sieves and other tools that we also have in our kitchen, or better, we have their recent cousins.

The old part

The oldest part of the trullo also is the largest. We’re in a twin trullo, that is to say that it has two vaults inside, but under a unique cone. This is the part that dates back the 17^th century.

Here socializing activities happened and there’s an element that tells us so, the fireplace. And I hear you asking why the fireplace. Wasn’t it to heat  the room? Sure, but if I find a stone bench inside the structure, I immediately imagine people sat, tosty, kindly chatting!

The garden

Let’s walk through the room decorated with trunks and jars to go out in the garden on the back. The sunlight, the green of the lawn and of the hedge, the cones of the trullo against blue sky and red geraniums on the white background of the wall. Everything in perfect harmony.

Here there’s another peculiarity of the Trullo Sovrano: the external tank. Generally, the tank for water collection was under the building. On the contrary, here it’s in the garden because there are more cones and ditches that convey in this point.

On the lawn, a bit aside, there’s a small building. A question arises: what was there? Well, the toilet, an element that makes us understand that the inhabitants of the trullo were wealthy and can afford even the luxury of a toilet, whereas the other had to be content with the bedpan.

On the lawn they placed some tables and garden umbrellas and visitor can take a seat and taste a glass of local wine in the tranquility of this private green corner. If they want to get the chance, they also can buy some local and delicious products to take home and to taste, like taralli or Primitivo wine orecchiette.

Now we walk under a romantic pergola to get in again, but not from where we went out.

The master kitchen

We get in from the master kitchen, which unlike the servants’ one, enjoys the direct access to the garden. If in the other kitchen we saw the tools used in the past, here there’s a celebration of local cuisine and of the Mediterranean diet.

Bowls of legumes, pasta and grains spread the table and tell about a diet that once was considered poor, for those who could afford expensive food like meat. On the contrary, nowadays it’s considered as one of the healthiest, richest in nourishment and most refined.

From here we return to the room where we’ve started our visit and  go and discover something that there’s just in this trullo.

The first floor

If there’s something that you can see just in the Trullo Sovrano, it’s the stone staircase. As I said at the beginning of the blog post, trulli usually have a loft with a wooden staircase. Instead, in the Trullo Sovrano they take advantage of the important width of load-bearing walls to realize a long, practical and comfortable staircase to go upstairs.

Initially, the two rooms were conceived to be the guest rooms, but that area is very cold in winter and hot in summer, so not that “hospitable”. For this reason it was used as weaving room, as the  loom in the middle of the space proves.

In the next little room a cradle and some toys tell that while the mum was working at the loom, her children could stay with her and play. When you are here, I suggest you to look outside the little window and to enjoy this privileged view on the streets of Alberobello.

 Before leaving the room, pay attention to a grate on the floor that opens on an underlying space. If you look carefully, you can notice that inside there are some coins. Once it was the grain deposit. They tell that in 1862 Giuseppe Sumerano threw some coins in it before sowing  as a sign of goodwill and the harvest was excellent. Now, also visitors throw a coin in this old well, wishing to have good luck as happened to the owner of the trullo.

Our visit ends here. As an Apulian woman, I thought to know well trulli. Instead, once more, I’ve to admit that you never know your land and its typicalities well enough. I’ve always seen the Trullo Sovrano from outside, but I’ve never got closer enough to allow it to talk about itself, until now.

If you are in Alberobello, don’t stop just in the monumental district, but venture in the Northern part of the town, where streets are quieter, with less traffic and listen to the stories that the Trullo Sovrano will be glad to tell you.

The Trullo Sovrano is open every day from h. 10,00 to h. 13,00 and from h. 15,30 to h. 18,30. The ticket costs 2,00 euros. For further information you can visit the website.

I thank Pier Giorgio Francavilla and the team of the Trullo Sovrano for having had and guided me in this journey in time and in the tradition of one of the symbols of Puglia, which is the most known in the world.