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The term trullo comes from the Greek word trullos, which
means dome. However, the word trullo is rather a recent term of
certain scholarly and scientific derivation.
The term with which these drywall homes were called in the
northern part of Salento and throughout the “Murgia” trulli
area, was simply "casedda", literally small house. This is in
fact, a modest but comfortable home built by farmers who
shrewdly utilized the most abundant raw material available here:
calcareaus stones (limestone).
Our land is karst with a thin layer of clay. “Apulia petrosa”,
as it was called in the past, with reference to the central and
southern area of Puglia between the provinces of Bari, Taranto
and Brindisi where a farmer civilization grew and changed (with
so much sweat and sacrifice), a land which was not suitable for
profitable agricultural cultivation. The farmer chose the place
to build the trullo, usually in the most rocky part, less
suitable for cultivation, then dug and moulded the ground and
removed the emerging stones that were used for the construction
of the trullo base and the dry stone walls.
From the limestone, often in layers easily divisible in slabs,
they obtained the “chiancarelle”(flat limestones), that
overlapped dry (without the use of mortar) formed concentric
circles which were gradually closed in at the apex with a
pinnacle. Various forms of pinnacles close the trullo’s apex:
crosses, stars, spheres and other Christian and astrological
symbols. Thin limestone slabs called “chianche” were expertly
smoothed and utilized for the flooring
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