Between stones and stories
of an authentic village

Doreen: An Italian-American Rediscovering Her Roots

In Turi, Fecàzze a sfuègghie is more than a focaccia: it is a ritual. Born as a humble food made of flour, water and generous amounts of olive oil, it is distinguished by its book-style layering, which creates both crisp and tender layers. Prepared on feast days and baked in a wood-fired oven, it is a symbol of ancient rural knowledge — now almost forgotten, yet still able to tell the story of the land’s identity and living memory.

In the heart of Puglia, in Turi, devotion to Sant’Oronzo is born from a grotto and unfolds across three centuries of history. From 1726, following the apparition to Fra’ Tommaso da Carbonara, the cult takes shape between popular faith and official recognition. The Distinta Relazione of 1757, the construction of the church, and the 20th-century events surrounding Oronzo De Carolis tell the story of a living, complex devotion that remains deeply tied to local identity today.

He was born in Turi in 1899 and died at just 18 years of age on Monte Corno on 4 March 1918. A farm labourer from a humble family, he was called up very young and assigned to the Bersaglieri. His life was cut short amid the cold, mud and fighting of the First World War. Remembering him means giving a voice to a generation sacrificed too soon and preserving a memory that belongs to the entire community.

Turi is not a place of birth in Antonio Gramsci’s records, but it is a place of his resistance. Here, between 1928 and 1933, in a cell lit even at night, thought became both refuge and weapon. Within the silence of the prison, the Prison Notebooks took shape, while the discreet presence of Tatiana Schucht and the voices of those who met him transformed imprisonment into a shared memory.

A canvas from 1749 comes back to life in Turi. The Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Joseph Calasanzio, restored thanks to the Dell’Aera–Arrè family, was unveiled on 6 December 2025 in the Church of San Domenico. More than an artistic restoration, it is an act of collective memory that returns to the town the history of the Piarists and reaffirms the value of education as a common good.

Giovanni Maria Sabino (1588–1649), born in Turi, is a key figure of the emerging Neapolitan musical school. A composer and priest, he lived through the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque, blending liturgical rigour with intense expressiveness. His motets, psalms and cantatas engage in dialogue with the great European music of the 17th century. Today, his work lives on thanks to the Baroque Ensemble Giovanni Maria Sabino, which gives voice once again to music of pr

Turi is a town that emerges from the earth. From prehistory to the medieval period, its subsoil reveals traces of Eneolithic settlements, Peucetian necropolises, monumental tombs and ancient walls. Discoveries made in areas such as Via Castellana, Lamarossa, Piazza Chiesa and the surroundings of the Library tell a millennia-old story that is often overlooked. A widespread archaeological heritage that still awaits full recognition and enhancement as a key element of the area’s

In the Church of the Poor Clares in Turi, the Nativity with Saint Mark and the Crucifixion by Samuele Tatulli narrate the full arc of Christ’s life: from the light of birth to the sacrifice of the Cross. Two mirror-like canvases, attributed to the Apulian painter through the studies of Giovanni Boraccesi, engage in a dialogue of colour, suffering and hope, offering an intense visual meditation—marked by time, yet still able to speak to the heart.

Urban Development of Turi