Puglia's circular white city — a perfectly round hilltop of whitewashed houses above the Valle d'Itria
Locorotondo is a small city in the Valle d'Itria in Puglia whose historic centre is a perfectly circular plan of whitewashed houses with steeply pitched limestone roof ridges (cummerse) — a building tradition unique to Locorotondo that gives the roofline a distinctive serrated silhouette. The entire old town is contained within a near-perfect circle of medieval streets; looking down from above, the geometry is striking. The surrounding Valley of Itria is covered in trulli (the conical stone structures of Alberobello) and the area produces Locorotondo DOC white wine from Verdeca and Bianco d'A…
Locorotondo's circular plan dates from the medieval period when the town was built on a natural circular rise — the name means 'round place' (locus rotundus). The characteristic cummerse roofs (steeply pitched gabled roofs with a sharp ridge, as opposed to the flat-roofed trulli of the valley below) reflect a building code instituted in the 18th century to channel rainwater efficiently; they are maintained as a heritage requirement to this day. The Locorotondo DOC wine appellation was established in 1969 and covers an area that also includes Cistercian-influenced vineyard management patterns…