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Ostuni

Ostuni: discover Puglia’s northern-most treasure in this delightful town boasting striking white buildings, medieval side streets, and a stunning cathedral.ostuni

You will find Ostuni, or the Città Bianca, in the Val d’Itria, in Eastern Puglia. It lies 218m above sea level, and sits around the top of a small hill. Its incomparable beauty is partly indebted to its white-washed buildings, a tradition that started centuries before. Though mainly an aesthetic choice, this habit of white-washing buildings actually took on a vital role in the 1800s. When the Plague arrived in Ostuni, this method helped to prevent it from sweeping across the town in swift succession.

The White Town of Ostuni boasts a magical combination of medieval architecture, stunning panoramic views, and impressive monuments to history. You can easily get lost in its small side streets, but you can always use the cathedral as a point of reference. This 15-century romanesque-gothic structure sits at the very top of Ostuni’s hill. It moreover exhibits a beautiful rose window with 24 rays cut out of the stone.

You can also take a walk down the Via Cattedrale. Here you will find the Museum of Pre-Classical Civilization of Southern Murgia. This museum sits on the site of an old Carmelite Monastery, and now owns the calque of the 25,000 year-old Delia. Make sure you also save time for the Largo Trinchera. Here the Arco Scoppa bridges the gap between and old Seminary and the Bishop’s Palace, both dating back to the 18th Century.

Fortified walls surround this charming town. These boundaries still keep the two Ancient entrances, the Porta Nova and Porta San Demetrio, which offer passage through these Aragonese walls. The Aragons are just one of the families that touched Ostuni, which has known an extremely varied past. Almost all the civilizations that passed through Italy left their mark on this town. For example, just some of the names include Romans, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Angevins, and Bourbons. Most of what you can still see of these civilizations, however, dates to the 15th-18th Centuries.

If history doesn’t interest you as much, Ostuni also offers gorgeous sweeping views. It boasts panoramic views of the Adriatic sea and the surrounding landscapes, which are dotted with masserie (old farmhouse estates).

You can access Ostuni fairly easily. It is only 42km from Brindisi, and 8km from some of the Adriatic coast’s most beautiful beaches.

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