Ostuni
Discover Ostuni
A concise introduction to Ostuni, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Ostuni is a hill town of about 31,000 people in the province of Brindisi, on the last rise of the Murgia before the land drops to the Adriatic.
The old town wraps a hilltop at around 220 metres in concentric rings of lanes, steps and vaulted passages, almost entirely limewashed white. At the top stands the late-fifteenth-century cathedral, with an enormous and unusual rose window, linked to the bishop's palace opposite by the Arco Scoppa, an arch thrown across the lane.
Below the old town the nineteenth-century extension spreads around Piazza della Libertà , where the obelisk of Sant'Oronzo stands and where the town actually conducts its business.
Between Ostuni and the sea lies a plain of monumental olive trees, some of them well over a thousand years old, and eight kilometres away the coast is low rock, sand and the protected reserve at Torre Guaceto.