Grain and rock on the Alta Murgia

Santeramo in Colle · Altamura · Gravina in Puglia · Poggiorsini · BA

Four municipalities in the province of Bari that the Alta Murgia Park Authority lists, all of them, among the thirteen of its territory: a limestone plateau of dolines, caves and pastures, with stone masserie, cereals, almond trees and vines. The thread is double. There is bread: the European production specification for Pane di Altamura DOP includes in the production area Altamura, Gravina and Poggiorsini, but not Santeramo, which enters here for the rock and for a pilgrims' cave. And there is carved stone: the gravina of Gravina, the Pulo, the cavities where the skeleton of a man, frescoes, burials have been found. It is a slow journey for those who want to read a harsh landscape through its rock churches and its museums. The order of the stages and the division into days are our own proposal.

The route

Day 1 — Santeramo in Colle

The first day is for carved stone. We begin underground, in contrada Talpullo-Cortefinocchia. The grotta di Sant'Angelo is a natural karst cavity, writes the Ministry of Culture's record, which in the Middle Ages was one of the places in Puglia of the cult of San Michele; a study by the University of Bari places it in the Calcare di Altamura, of the Upper Cretaceous, with about 190 square metres that can be walked. The reason it was frequented lies in the devotion of pilgrims, who left graffiti on the walls: the Chi-Rho monogram, crosses, pentalphas. In the frescoes a faceless San Michele pierces the dragon, and on the vault Christ Pantocrator enthroned sits among the twelve apostles. From the 16th century, according to the same study, the cave became a shelter for shepherds and animals; the Soprintendenza placed it under protection in 1939, and its conservation is judged poor: visits need to be checked. The town stands on a hill. The Ministry's record for the historic centre measures its core at about 7.20 hectares and recalls the autonomy granted in 1374 by Queen Joanna I with the title of Castrum Sancti Herasmi; in the 16th century, with the Palazzo Marchesale, the settlement expanded into the outer quarters of Casalnovo, San Rocco and Santa Maria della Lama. The archive of the marquis's family is today in the State Archive of Bari. Tomorrow, Altamura.

Day 2 — Altamura

The second day is for bread and for the city that wrote its rules. The city is read from the cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, which the municipality says was commissioned by Frederick II. The earthquake of 1316 brought down much of it; the rebuilding, under King Robert of Anjou, bears the signature of the sons of a master Consiglio da Bitonto above the Porta Angioina. Inside is the stone nativity scene by Altobello Persio. Around it, the Ministry's record for the historic centre describes an ancient double circuit of walls, of which only one gate remains, Porta Alba, and a city that Frederick II repopulated after centuries without material traces; the municipality recalls the redemption from the Crown in 1531, for 20,000 ducats. Bread has its written rules here: the DOP specification requires re-milled durum wheat semolina, sourdough refreshed at least three times, baking at 250 degrees (if the oven is direct-fired, it must be fed with oak wood) and a crust of at least three millimetres, in two shapes, the tall one, called “skuanète”, and the low one, “a cappidd d'prèvte”, the priest's hat. At the Museo Nazionale Archeologico the municipal record pointed out, on a 2024 page, the exhibition “Preistoria del cibo. Alle origini del pane”; exhibition and opening times to be checked. Tomorrow, outside the walls, the rock.

Day 3 — Il Pulo, Lamalunga and Gravina in Puglia

The third day returns to carved stone. The Pulo, writes the municipality of Altamura, is a bowl-shaped karst doline about 500 metres in diameter and 75 deep, with caves inhabited since prehistory. In the Lamalunga cave, in the city's countryside, the skeleton of a Neanderthal was found in 1993; the cave remains closed for protection, and it can be known at the Visitor Centre or at Palazzo Baldassarre, which reproduces its section at 1:1 scale. Along the Appia Antica, the fortified masseria of Jesce holds a frescoed crypt dedicated to San Michele. At Gravina, according to the archaeological project of Saint Mary's University, in late antiquity people took refuge in the caves of the gravina, and from there the medieval city was born. On the western side, the Sette Camere, for the Ministry's record, were inhabited from the 7th century BC; among the Greek grave goods there is an articulated terracotta doll, shown in the exhibition “Aristocrazia e mito” of the Fondazione Pomarici Santomasi, which also keeps the detached frescoes of the crypt of San Vito Vecchio and an augustalis of Frederick II. The rock church of the Madonna della Stella was made a sanctuary by the Orsini in the 15th century; its frescoes of san Pietro and san Nicola could be seen until the Thirties of the 20th century. The cathedral, according to CartApulia, collapsed almost entirely in the earthquake of 1456 and was rebuilt in the 16th century. A tradition, reported by the same university project, links the name of the city to the motto “Grana dat et vina”: it is a tradition, not a fact. The next day, Poggiorsini.

Day 4 — Poggiorsini and the Garagnone

The last day holds the two threads together, rock and bread. Poggiorsini is, for a record on the regional Interreg portal, a terrace over the valleys of the Roviniero stream. The municipality tells its short history: the name from the Orsini, who called the district Poggio degli Orsini, the earthquake of 1930 that reduced many buildings to ruin, autonomy from Gravina in 1957. About 3 km from the centre, the ruins of the Castello del Garagnone merge with the rock of a spur above the Fossa Bradanica. The Ministry's record dates it to the 11th-12th century, explains it with the road, because it controlled the Appia between Spinazzola and Altamura; the earthquake of 1731 reduced it to ruins, then came abandonment. In the hypothetical reconstruction of the same record there were, inside the walls, a grain mill and an oven. Access conditions are not documented. The journey, in our proposal, ends here, among the stones of a castle where the record also imagines an oven.

DRAFT of 2026-11-08 · local only · gate run: PASSES WITH CORRECTIONS, 15 defects corrected · not approved