Between stones and stories
of an authentic village

In Turi, around thirty apotropaic masks have survived—human faces carved into arches, doorways and windows, intended to protect against evil spirits and the evil eye. Created mainly between the 1910s and 1920s, they feature grotesque expressions designed to ward off misfortune. Today, many are deteriorated, yet they remain valuable witnesses to popular imagination and to the town’s historical identity.

The Cross of Via Rutigliano in Turi is a large 19th-century votive shrine that for centuries marked the entrance to the town and the symbolic passage between the world of the living and that of the dead. Restored in 1994, and already rotated and repositioned in the 1930s, it preserves Neo-Gothic forms inspired by cathedral portals. Today, it represents the identity heart of the Rione della Croce and an urban landmark worthy of further enhancement.

Doreen: An Italian-American Rediscovering Her Roots

In the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Turi, a 17th-century Immaculate Conception is preserved, the work of the friar-painter Fra Antonio da Conversano, commissioned by Giovanni Domenico Gonnelli. The canvas, marked by apocalyptic iconography and rich in biblical symbolism, reflects the sophisticated Franciscan Marian theology of the seventeenth century. Today, the artwork is severely damaged and requires urgent restoration to safeguard its historical, artistic and devotio

At the Borsa Internazionale del Turismo in Milan, within the official stand of the Regione Puglia, the initiative “Cuori di Sapori” was presented as part of the strategic development path of Turi Borgo Antico, entrusted to Graf Srl.

In the dialect of Turi, some expressions are more than words: they are layered stories, cultural inheritances that come from far away. “Jèje figghie alla gaddìna bianghe” is one of them.

The Addante bakery, known as “Cicoria”, was the ancient heart of Turi: a place where the scent of bread filled the narrow streets and brought the community together. Founded in the 16th century, between stone and fire it preserved gestures, traditions and everyday solidarity. Not just a bakery, but an extended family — a living memory of a town where the smell of bread meant home, sharing and identity.

In the Apulian context, “meh” is less a word with a fixed meaning than a flexible expressive unit, capable of conveying multiple meanings through a single tone of voice — much like a glance, a shrug, or a facial expression, but verbalized. This quality makes it a distinctive feature of everyday communication, not only in dialects, but also in contemporary popular culture.

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.

Behind the grilles of the Monastery of Santa Chiara in Turi, in the 17th century marked by plague, famine and poverty, the lives of the Poor Clare nuns unfold amid hunger, silence and strict discipline. The Santa Visita of 1659 reveals accounts in deficit, lost incomes and food reduced to the bare minimum. Burdened by costly dowries, illness and an ever more rigid enclosure, the nuns endured: a fragile yet resilient community that transformed deprivation into a silent testimo

In the aftermath of the First World War, a wounded Turi sought signs rather than answers. Oronzo De Carolis, a humble and devout man, claimed to hear Sant’Oronzo within the grotto beneath the church. Around him grew a collective ожидation shaped by hope, visions and excess. The Church and the authorities intervened. It was not deception, but faith pushed to its limits: the mirror of an entire community searching for meaning.

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.

In Turi, inside the Mother Church, the Renaissance takes shape in the stone carved by Stefano da Putignano. Sculptor and architectus of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, he gives voice to a concrete, popular devotion through Madonnas, Saints and monumental groups. In a Puglia marked by wars and hardship, his art blends Romanesque roots with Renaissance language in an authentic and powerful style, one that has remained alive through the centuries.

A short artistic pilgrimage leads through the churches of Turi in search of the Nativity of Jesus: from the intimate, silent 17th-century miniature of the Rosary in San Giovanni Battista, to the 18th-century scene on the altar of Our Lady of Terra Rossa in the Mother Church, and finally to the dynamic, luminous canvas by Samuele Tatulli in Santa Chiara. Three perspectives, three eras, one single mystery: Bethlehem, the light that changed history.

Urban Development of Turi