The land
of Bari, an old huge territory dipped in wanderful sweep
of ancient olive groves, keeps intact numerous beauties
and cultural and landscape rarities.
Castel del Monte, haunting residence of Frederick II,
dominates the apulian landscape from one of the highest
ranges of the Murge. Masterpiece of the Swabian architecture
in Apulia, with an octagonal plan, reminds the 8 gold
leaf of the “Reichkrone”, the imperial crown
of the X century. The octagonal plan is also repeted
in the 8 towers inserted in the corners of the central
body.
Witnesses of the folk society and symbol of the human
presence on the territory, the Trulli tell a story both
fascinating and mysterious, half way between the reality
and the legend.Used both as habitation and shelter for
the cattle, with their unmistakable pinnacles, they
are stone constructions with the absolute prohibition
of using mortar.
This permetted a rapid and easy dismantling, in case
of control from the government authorities charged with
the collection of taxes on the habitations.
They are often decorated with astral symbols or with
holy and profane drawings that have an esoteric significance
connected to an archaic cult.
The origins of the apotropaic masks, carved in stone,
go back to the genesis of man. Extreme expression of
the popular religiousness and of the folk society, they
found their right placement on the architraves of the
entrance of the habitations and they had not only a
decorative function but also propitiatory of fecundity,
welfare and fertility and they turned away the evil
eye.
The subjects mainly represented were: floral and botanic
symbols, animals, monsters from the mythology and human
figures.
The church of Ognissanti di Cuti
is a little Benedictine monastic building with a longitudinal
plant with a nave and two side aisles ending with three
semicircular apses. It has no transept. It was founded
in the XII century by the abbot Eustachius of the order
of Saint Benedict. It is the only well preserved apulian
romanic church among the others, with three domes. The
church of Ognissanti is in the countryside around Valenzano,
two km far from it.
