The white Baroque city in the Valle d'Itria — capocollo pork smoked over pomegranate wood, opera in a ducal palace courtyard, and the most ornate Baroque facades in Trulli country
Martina Franca is the largest city in the Valle d'Itria — the lush Pugliese valley of dry-stone trulli farmhouses, old vineyards, and cylindrical conical-roofed buildings. The Baroque town centre, entirely whitewashed, has an unusually dense concentration of aristocratic palazzi and the Ducal Palace. The city is the production centre for Capocollo di Martina Franca — a cured pork neck aged with aromatic herbs and smoked over pomegranate wood, a Protected Designation of Origin product with a flavour unlike any other capocollo in Italy.
Martina Franca was founded in the 14th century when Philip I of Anjou granted a charter of liberties (franca) to attract settlers — the 'franca' suffix means franchise, not France. The settlement grew to significance under the Caracciolo Duchy from the 16th century, whose patronage produced the Baroque town centre. The Festival della Valle d'Itria, an opera festival founded in 1975 in the Ducal Palace's internal courtyard, focuses on bel canto and rare Baroque operas.