The picturesque white Town, perched on three hills with a wonderful panoramic view, displays its maze of white streets, rich in history, craft shops and traditional restaurants.Ostuni, perched on three hills, is located inside the
Itria Valley, 218 meters above sea level. It is 42 km north-west of
Brindisi, 8 km from the Adriatic coast and it was awarded the
Blue Flag.
Ostuni, the
White Town, is magic thanks to the characteristic whitewashed houses of its historic center, a tradition the inhabitants still keep on. The
Fifteenth century Romanesque-Gothic
Cathedral dominates mid town, with a façade sporting a 24-rays rose window of rare beauty.
Along the Via Cattedrale, which divides into two parts the medieval heart of town, there is the former Carmelite Monastery, nowadays seat of the
Museum of pre-classical civilization of Southern Murgia, which contains the calque of
Delia, a pregnant woman who lived 25,000 years ago.
In
Piazza Beato Giovanni Paolo II (the Cathedral little square), eighteenth century buildings like the
Palazzo Vescovile and the old
Seminario are connected by the fascinating Scoppa arch. At the ground floor of Palazzo Episcopio, the
Diocesan Museum holds and exhibits the extraordinary historic-artistic heritage of the Ostuni church, with internationally renowned masterpieces.
A series of
churches and
elegant houses embellish the old town, surrounded by
Aragonese walls, where there are the two ancient town gates, Porta Nova and Porta San Demetrio.
Ostuni’s countryside is dotted with
masserie (farmsteads), mostly turned into holiday farmhouses (agriturismi) and luxury resorts. Among them, Santa Caterina, with its high octagonal tower, the fortified masseria Lo Spagnulo and the masseria Cappuccini, with its
trulli.
(source: www.viaggiareinpuglia.it - The official tourism website for Puglia)