Trullo
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A trullo (plural, trulli) is a
traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...
n
dry stone hut Types of dry stone hut include: * Clochán, associated with the south-western Irish seaboard * Mitato, found in Greece, especially on the mountains of Crete * Orri, associated with Ariège, France * Shielings in Scotland * Trulli, in Apulia, ...
with a
conical roof A conical roof or cone roof is a cone-shaped roof that is circular at its base and terminates in a point. Distribution Conical roofs are frequently found on top of towers in medieval town fortifications and castles, where they may either si ...
. Their style of construction is specific to the
Itria Valley Itria Valley (in Italian: ''Valle d'Itria'') is an area located in Apulia region, in Southern Italy. Itria Valley spreads over Province of Bari, Province of Brindisi and Province of Taranto, and coincide with the lower part of Altopiano delle Murg ...
, in the
Murge The Altopiano delle Murge (Italian for "Murge plateau") is a karst topographic plateau of rectangular shape in southern Italy. Most of it lies within Apulia and corresponds with the sub-region known as Murgia or Le Murge. The plateau lies mainl ...
area of the Italian region of
Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...
. Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers. In the town of
Alberobello Alberobello (; literally "beautiful tree"; Barese: ) is a small town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has 10,735 inhabitants and is famous for its unique '' trullo'' buildings. The ''trulli'' of Alberob ...
, in the province of Bari, whole districts contain dense concentrations of trulli. The golden age of trulli was the nineteenth century, especially its final decades, which were marked by the development of wine growing.


From the to the

The Italian term ''trullo'' (from the Greek word , cupola) refers to a house whose internal space is covered by a dry stone corbelled or keystone
vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...
. is an Italianized form of the dialectal term, , used in a specific area of the Salentine peninsula (i.e. Lizzaio, Maruggio, and Avetrana, in other words, outside the Murgia dei Trulli proper), where it is the name of the local agricultural dry stone hut. has replaced the local term (pl. ) (Italian , pl. ), which was used by locals in the Murgia to call this type of house. A stonemason specializing in the building of is a or in Italian. The corresponding dialectal term is ( in the plural), i.e. builder of .


History

There are many theories behind the origin of the design. One of the more popular theories is that due to high
taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal person, legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regiona ...
on property, the people of Apulia built
dry stone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
constructions so that they could be dismantled quickly when tax inspectors were in the area. In available historical records from the mid-fourteenth century to the late sixteenth century, the area of Alberobello is referred to mostly as ''selva'' ("forest") and occasionally, as a land from which grazing animals were excluded. Evidence is lacking as to the existence of dwellings in the area prior to the seventeenth century. A ''Plan of the Territory of Mottala'' drawn by Donato Gallerano in 1704 reveals the existence of a nucleus of trulli in the midst of a large wood, making up the initial settlement of ''Arbore bello'' ("beautiful tree").Angelo Ambrosi et al., op. cit., p. 12. In a geographical map drawn by Giovanni Antonio Rizzi Zannoni in 1808, one may see the ''selva'' of Alberobello and, in the midst of it, a clearing with a settlement pattern of scattered houses that bears a striking resemblance to the present-day urban pattern. In an 1897 photograph of the ''rione Monti'' (the district of the Mounts), the trulli are far less densely packed than today, being surrounded by enclosed gardens. The urban trulli still extant in Alberobello date from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After having undergone a process of densification in the first decades of the twentieth century, the trulli settlements began to be deserted during the second half of the twentieth century. The rural trulli, on cheaper land, ceased to be built when the cost of labour began to rise in the twentieth century. The sheer expense of handling the hundreds of tons necessary for a single house became prohibitive.


Distribution

The style of construction is specific to the
Itria Valley Itria Valley (in Italian: ''Valle d'Itria'') is an area located in Apulia region, in Southern Italy. Itria Valley spreads over Province of Bari, Province of Brindisi and Province of Taranto, and coincide with the lower part of Altopiano delle Murg ...
, in the
Murge The Altopiano delle Murge (Italian for "Murge plateau") is a karst topographic plateau of rectangular shape in southern Italy. Most of it lies within Apulia and corresponds with the sub-region known as Murgia or Le Murge. The plateau lies mainl ...
area of the Italian region of
Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...
. Trulli may be found in and out of
Alberobello Alberobello (; literally "beautiful tree"; Barese: ) is a small town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has 10,735 inhabitants and is famous for its unique '' trullo'' buildings. The ''trulli'' of Alberob ...
, and in the areas around
Locorotondo Locorotondo ( Barese: ) is a town and municipality of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy, with a population of about 14,000. It is situated between Martina Franca and Alberobello in the Valle d'Itria, a green stretch of countr ...
,
Fasano Fasano (; Barese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brindisi, Apulia, southern Italy. It is the second most populated town in the province after Brindisi, with a population in 2021 of 39,026. History According to a folk etymology, ...
,
Ostuni Ostuni ( nap, label= Barese, Ostune; scn, label=Salentino, Stune) is a city and '' comune'', located about 8 km from the coast, in the province of Brindisi, region of Apulia, Italy. The town has a population of about 32,000 during the win ...
,
Cisternino Cisternino is a ''comune'' in the province of Brindisi in Apulia, on the coast of south-eastern Italy, approximately north-west of the city of Brindisi. Its main economic activities are tourism, the growing of olives and grapes, and dairy farming ...
,
Martina Franca Martina Franca, or just Martina ( Martinese: ), is a town and ''municipality'' in the province of Taranto, Apulia, Italy. It is the second most populated town of the province after Taranto, and has a population (2016) of 49,086. Since 1975, th ...
, and
Ceglie Messapica Ceglie Messapica (; scn, label= Brindisino, Cégghie) is a town, and ''comune'', located in the province of Brindisi and region of Apulia, in southern Italy, in the traditional area called Salento. Geography The area of Ceglie Messapica is loc ...
.


Geology

The Murgia is a
karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...
plateau. Winter rains drain through the soil into fissures in the strata of limestone bedrock and flow through underground watercourses into the Adriatic. There is no permanent surface water, and water for living purposes must be trapped in catchment basins and cisterns. The surface forms a landscape of rolling hills and ridges punctuated now and again with dolines and other forms of enclosed depressions characteristic of karsts.


Architecture


Grouping

The trullo is essentially a rural building type. With its thick walls and its inability to form multi-storey structures, it is an inefficient use of ground space and consequently ill-suited for high density multi story settlement. Being constructed of small stones, however, it has a flexibility and adaptability of form making the design most helpful in tight urban situations. In the countryside, trullo domes were built singly or in groups of up to five, or sometimes, in large farmyard clusters of a dozen or two dozen, but never for the occupancy of more than a single rural family.Edward Allen, "Stone shelters", op. cit., p. 84.


Materials

Depending on the area, the building material used could be either hard limestone or calcareous
tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine. ...
.


Masonry

Traditionally trulli were built using
dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
masonry, i.e. without any mortar or cement. This style of construction also is prevalent in the surrounding countryside where most of the fields are separated by
dry-stone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...
s.


Walls

In Alberobello, the structural walls of a trullo are laid directly on the bedrock, after removal of the topsoil when necessary. Their width varies from 0.80 metres to 2.70 metres (a measure recorded in the Trullo Sovrano). Their height (from ground level to where the vault starts) ranges from 1.60 metres to 2 metres. Their exterior facing has a 3 to 5% batter.


Underground cistern

The stones needed for starting to build a trullo were provided by digging a
cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...
(''cisterna''), an absolute necessity in an area devoid of water. The cistern was capped with a lime-mortared barrel vault or dome that in many cases, supported the floor of the house.


Roofs

The roofs are constructed in two skins: an inner skin of limestone
voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...
s, capped by a closing stone, and an outer skin of limestone slabs that are slightly tilted outwardly, ensuring that the structure is watertight. The roof stones may be taken away without compromising the stability of the rest of the building.


Plans

The trullo may take on a circular or a square plan. The circular trullo is mostly a temporary shelter for animals and their fodder, or, for the peasant himself. The trullo that is part of a grouping of three, four, or five follows a squarish plan. It may serve as a kitchen, bedroom, animal shelter, store room for food or tools, oven, or cistern, as the case may be. In Alberobello, groupings did not exceed two ''trulli'', as evidenced by nineteenth-century notarial deeds.


Pinnacles

In Alberobello, atop the cone of a trullo, there is normally a hand-worked sandstone pinnacle (''pinnacolo''), that may be one of many designs: disk, ball, cone, bowl, polyhedron, or a combination thereof, that is supposed to be the signature of the stonemason who built the trullo.


Whitewashed symbols

Additionally, the cone may have a symbol painted on it (as shown in the picture of the trulli in Alberobello.) Such symbols may include Christian symbols such as a simple
cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
, a cross on a heart pierced by an arrow (representing ''Santa Maria Addolorata'' ("Our Lady of Sorrows"), a circle divided into four quarters with the letters S, C, S, D in them (for ''Sanctus Christus'' and ''Sanctus Dominus'' according to one source, but more likely, the initials of ''Santo Cosma'' and ''Santo Damiano'', the two saints to whom the local basilica is dedicated) and quite a few others. The symbols now visible on a row of trulli in via Monte Pertica (cross, pierced heart, host with rays radiating from it, tree, dove symbolising the Holy Spirit, and crescent with a cross) were painted only in the late twentieth century and the early 2000s when the roof cones were renovated. The quaint symbols that grace the trullo-like cones of bungalows at the Hotel dei Trulli in Alberobello first appeared in the late 1950s, when the hotel resort was built.


Interiors

The vast majority of trulli have one room under each conical roof, with additional living spaces in arched alcoves. Children would sleep in alcoves made in the wall with curtains hung to separate them from the central room. A multi-room trullo house has many cones, each representing a separate room. Along with its exterior wall, a trullo's interior room and vault intrados often were rendered with lime plaster and whitewashed for protection against drafts. The trulli used as dwellings all have an open fireplace complete with a flue (hidden in the masonry) and a stone-built chimney stack (rising high above the roof). Because of their design, trulli are difficult to heat: the walls are very thick and warm air will rise up the interior cone. An alternative heating solution was to use a central
brasero Brasero may refer to: * Brasero (heater), a heater or an oven * Brasero (software), CD/DVD-burning software for Linux See also * Bracero program {{disambig