Altamura

Altamura is the capitals-of-the-Murgia town where a medieval cathedral commissioned by Frederick II, a celebrated protected bread and one of the most important palaeontological discoveries of the twentieth century share the same limestone plateau. It is Puglia at its most layered: Swabian stone, prehistoric caves and warm bakery air within a few steps of each other.

Why visit

Most travellers pass Altamura on the way to somewhere else, which is precisely the reason to stop. This is a working city, not a stage set: its lanes full of claustri courtyards and its bakeries turning out Pane di Altamura, the durum-wheat loaf that holds Italy’s protected DOP status. The cathedral Frederick II founded in 1232 anchors a shapely piazza, while on the edge of town a karst cave yielded the most complete Neanderthal skeleton ever discovered. Few destinations anywhere let you move, in one afternoon, from a thirteenth-century church to a deep-time human past and then to lunch built around bread mentioned by the Roman poet Horace.

Character and history

Altamura commands the Alta Murgia, Puglia’s high limestone plateau of dry grasslands, sinkholes and sheep tracks. Legend gives its founding a poetic touch: the emperor Frederick II, charmed by the sight of locals overturning a wedding party’s banquet to prolong the feast, ordered a city built here to concentrate the scattered farmsteads. What is documented is the date — 1232, the year the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta rose as the centrepiece of a planned town. After an earthquake damaged it, the church was rebuilt from 1316 and later enriched with a Renaissance portal and baroque touches, a readable cross-section of southern Gothic and beyond.

The surrounding Murgia held older stories still. Shepherds exploring the Lamalunga cave system in October 1993 stumbled on a human skeleton fused into flowstone — a Neanderthal, later dated to well over a hundred thousand years ago, astonishingly complete. The same decade saw dinosaur footprints identified in the Pontrelli quarry nearby, turning this quiet agricultural corner into one of Europe’s unexpected scientific crossroads.

What to see

Begin on Piazza Duomo with the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (Altamura Cathedral) and its freestanding Cathedral Bell Tower of Altamura; inside, the matronei galleries now host the Diocesan Museum Matronei (MUDIMA), where sacred art is shown in the very structure it served. The National Archaeological Museum of Altamura is essential: across two floors it walks the Murgia from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages and displays a lifelike reconstruction of Altamura Man, digitally modelled from the fossil skull. To reach the real thing, book through the Lamalunga Visitor Centre at the cave site itself. The MUDA – Palazzo Baldassarre rounds out the circuit of interpretation centres. Out on the plateau, the vast Pulo di Altamura sinkhole and the Grotta della Capra open karst landscapes dotted with rock-cut churches, while the Pontrelli Quarry (Dinosaur Quarry) preserves a trackway of dinosaur footprints some seventy million years old. Back in town, wander the Historic Centre of Altamura through its Claustri of Altamura (historic courtyards) and past the Megalithic Walls of Altamura, remnants of the pre-Roman settlement.

How to experience

Altamura rewards the senses before the checklist. Buy bread from a historic forno while it is still warm — the thick dark crust, open crumb and long fermentation make the DOP loaf a destination in itself — and eat it with local cheeses and cold cuts at a counter or courtyard table. Join a guided tour for the Lamalunga area, since cave access is strictly controlled for conservation and arranged through licensed operators; check current arrangements on www.coopculture.it or with the visitor centre. Time a visit to the Federicus festival, when the medieval quarter fills with re-enactment in the emperor’s honour. Evening passeggiata around Piazza Duomo, gelato in hand, is the town’s own institution.

Practical planning

Altamura sits about forty-five kilometres inland from Bari, with frequent FAL regional trains connecting the two — an easy day trip or a calmer base than the coast. A car is the most practical way to reach the Murgia sites, the sinkholes and the quarry, though guided excursions cover the distance comfortably. Spring and autumn suit the open plateau best; summer heat is real, so schedule cave visits and walks for the morning. Access to the Lamalunga cave itself is limited to research and specially authorised visits, so set expectations accordingly and confirm conditions with official channels before travel; the National Archaeological Museum exists precisely so nobody misses the discovery.

Nearby places

Altamura’s natural pairing is Gravina in Puglia, its neighbour across the Murgia plateau, where a rock-cut church landscape and a dramatic gorge-side old town continue the same story. Both towns share the high plateau’s bread-and-stone culture, and the drive between them crosses some of Puglia’s most open, atmospheric country.