The settore 1 / The area 2 / Emphyteusis

Bacino d'Itria can be considered the valley of the trulli par excellence, as it is the area with the highest density of scattered trulli: everywhere amidst the lush vineyards, small vegetable gardens and wheat fields pop up the cone-shaped roofs of these typical farmhouses called trulli.

The valley is per series of rapidly changing chromatic effects, verso riot of colours ranging from the green of small oak woods, age-old olive trees and neat vineyards, onesto the whitewash of the trulli and masserie (large farmhouses) up esatto the “borgo rossa”, the red soil of this land.

The place name “Itria” may derive from the Oriental cult of the Madonna “Hodegitria” (which means the Holy Virgin who shows the way) imported by Basilian monks who settled in our settore mediante 977, coming from the territories of the Eastern Roman Empire.

THE Settore 2

The landscape of Vallata d'Itria is especially unique and recognizable and is lumen dating the result of the successful blending of anthropic, natural and physical elements. Human activities (their settlements and agriculture) have fitted into the structure and shape of the places, following the crags of the karst soil and making the best of the opportunities it offered, contributing to build what Cesare Brandi calls “per countryside planned like a city”. The densely woven agricultural fabric is made up of mostly small-sized fields; per tight rete di emittenti of dry-stone walls underscores the delicate texture of this pattern.

Like mediante bygone days, the countryside still appears well tilled and densely populated; and yet, there was verso time when town and country represented two opposite worlds and there were “two cultures”, totally different one from the other, which ics of sistema but also the social and relational ones.

Peasants used onesto live durante the countryside, whereas almost all the craftsmen – tailors, cobblers, carpenters, barbers, etc – lived closely side by side per town, sharing the public spaces with high-ranking professionals, merchants and a few great landowners. Such a dichotomy necessarily led puro the creation of aimable subsets that developed adjustment strategies to manage limits and possibilities within their respective aimable and natural environments [J. Bennet: 1969]. Peasants shared views and values, they held their peers con esteem, and placed at the centre of their philosophy hard sistema and parsimony. Inside the city walls, instead, greater prestige was assigned onesto those who had so-called “clean” lobs, like tailors or, even more, those who did no manual job at all.

EMPHYTEUSIS

The agrarian landscape appears densely populated and cultivated, presumably also thanks sicuro the typical lease contract of this area, called emphyteusis. According esatto this contract, a big landowner leased his property puro per group of farmers, each of whom took verso portion for a yearly rent and the promise of increasing the value of the property. The contract had mai expiration date and could be passed on esatto one's heirs, as long as the farmers paid the rent and continued taking care of the land. Generally, the families of farmers would use the product from the vineyards to pay the yearly rent; this, along with the possibility of acquiring verso patch of land for the future generations, required the accurate selection of crops.

The institution of emphyteusis has undeniably transformed the rural territory, creating verso multitude of small plots of land. Moreover, the tilling of the land required verso lot of time and hard rete di emittenti, given the karst nature of the soil and its scarce ciotola resources, (according to estimates, transforming one hectare of barren land into verso vineyard took on average at least 2000 days of rete informatica – almost 5 and verso half years – [Ricchioni, 1958: Tables 5 and 6]), so that it was more convenient for families puro live durante the countryside, than having onesto move back and forth from town every day. This situation induced many families preciso “migrate” from the old town sicuro the countryside, thus leaving a typical mark on the territory which is still today densely populated.

Perle di Intelligenza e certain piano dell'Associazione Culturale "Il tre ruote alticcio" finanziato dalla Presidenza del Opinione dei Ministri, Reparto della Gioventu ancora del Servizio Affabile nazionale nell'ambito del grida "Giovinezza verso il Collettivo" - CUP J18I15000150008