The monuments
All the monuments, city by city
The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.
GallipoliGallipoli Old TownIsland citadel, Baroque cathedral, fishing harbor ramparts, underground oil millsOld Gallipoli sits on its own island behind ramparts, joined to the new town by a single bridge. Beneath the Baroque cathedral and the fish market, underground presses once supplied lamp oil to half of Europe.Plan the visit
OstuniOstuniThe White City, lime-washed lanes, hilltop cathedral, olive plain to the AdriaticOstuni whitewashes itself every year by ordinance born of plague defense, and the hill town reads as one white sculpture above the olive plain. Its lanes spiral up to a Gothic cathedral with a fifteenth-century rose window.
Martina FrancaMartina FrancaValle d'Itria Baroque, wrought-iron balconies, Ducal Palace, festival of operaThe Valle d'Itria's capital trades trulli for Baroque, its white lanes hung with wrought-iron balconies and scrolled portals. Summer brings the Festival della Valle d'Itria, opera rarities in the Ducal Palace courtyard.
AndriaUNESCOCastel del MonteFrederick II's octagonal enigma, eight towers of eight sides, mathematical harmonies, Murgia hilltopFrederick II built a perfect octagon with eight octagonal towers on a Murgia hilltop, and no document explains why. Fortress, hunting lodge or stone horoscope, Castel del Monte keeps the emperor's secret on the Italian one-cent coin.
LocorotondoLocorotondoPerfectly circular plan, cummerse gabled roofs, white lanes with flowers, Itria valley balconyLocorotondo is named for its circular plan, a ring of white lanes where pointed cummerse roofs replace the usual cones. Its eastern edge is one long balcony over the trulli-dotted Itria valley.
ViesteViesteGargano's white headland town, Pizzomunno monolith, beach legend of love, sea-cave coastVieste whitens a headland at the tip of the Gargano, with the monolith of Pizzomunno standing guard over its beach. Boats leave the harbor for a coast drilled with sea caves and arches.
BariBasilica di San NicolaRelics of Saint Nicholas, Puglian Romanesque prototype, Orthodox pilgrimage, stolen saint of 1087Bari's sailors stole Saint Nicholas from Myra in 1087 and the city built the prototype of Puglian Romanesque to hold him. Catholic and Orthodox pilgrims still share the crypt, where the saint's relics are said to exude manna.
Monte Sant'AngeloSanctuary of Monte Sant'AngeloArchangel's grotto, oldest Michael shrine in the West, Crusader graffiti, Gargano pilgrimageThe Archangel Michael is said to have appeared in this Gargano cave in 490, founding the West's oldest shrine to him. Pilgrims from Lombard kings to Crusaders cut their names into the walls on the way down to the grotto.
LecceBasilica di Santa CroceApex of Lecce Baroque, teeming sculpted facade, golden limestone, rose window riotLecce's soft golden stone let its carvers run wild, and Santa Croce is where they ran wildest. The facade teems with angels, beasts and caryatids around a rose window, a century of work in joyful excess.
Castellana GrotteCastellana CavesGrave sinkhole entrance, Grotta Bianca alabaster chamber, three kilometers of show cavesSpeleologist Franco Anelli dropped into the Grave sinkhole in 1938 and surfaced with Puglia's underground masterpiece. The guided walk runs three kilometers through canyons of stalactites to the Grotta Bianca, a chamber so pale it seems lit from within.
TraniTrani CathedralCathedral on the sea, pink-white limestone, bronze doors of Barisano, harbor reflectionTrani built its cathedral on a spit between harbor and open Adriatic, so the Romanesque facade rises straight from the water. Barisano's bronze doors of 1175 swing at the top of the double staircase, sea light on the metal.
OtrantoOtranto CathedralTree of Life floor mosaic, 800 martyrs' chapel, twelfth-century pavement, easternmost cathedralA single monk laid the Tree of Life across Otranto's entire cathedral floor in the 1160s, mixing Adam, Arthur and Alexander in one mosaic world. The chapel of the eight hundred martyrs of 1480 keeps their bones in plain view.
TarantoNational Archaeological Museum of TarantoGold of Taras, Greek jewelry unmatched, Magna Graecia masterworks, athlete's tombGreek Taras was the richest city of Magna Graecia, and its goldsmiths' work fills MArTA's cases with earrings and diadems no one has bettered since. The athlete buried with his prize amphorae is displayed as he was found.
AlberobelloUNESCOTrulli of Alberobello1500 cone-roofed houses, Rione Monti lanes, painted roof symbols, drystone ingenuityAlberobello stacks some fifteen hundred trulli up its two hills, white cones built drystone so they could be unbuilt before the tax man arrived. Painted symbols on the roofs mix Christianity and magic in honest proportion.
Polignano a MareLama MonachilePebble cove between cliffs, Red Bull diving stage, Roman bridge overlook, Polignano postcardPolignano's old ravine meets the sea in a pebble cove walled by cliffs and crowned by houses. The world's cliff divers compete from the balconies, and the Roman bridge above frames the postcard everyone takes.
Book a visit
Tours worth booking in Puglia
Compared by our editors, across providers.
Booking through these links may earn Italia Magnifica a commission, at no cost to you.
Viator
Secret Lecce
- 2h
- 5.0★ · 10 reviews
from €20Book this tour- 2h
- 5.0★ · 20 reviews
from €250Book this tour- 2h
- 5.0★ · 5 reviews
from €110Book this tour- 2h 30m
- 5.0★ · 12 reviews
from €110Book this tour- 3h
- 5.0★ · 21 reviews
from €60Book this tour- 2h
- 5.0★ · 4 reviews
from €50Book this tour
Cities
City by city
Where the monuments cluster in Puglia.