1920. Monopoli. A large house in the middle of the countryside, olive and almond trees in bloom. The life of an entire community is marked according to the rhythms that imposes the land and its cultivation. Closely intertwine the lives of several families, from that of the owners to those of farmers and settlers.
1970 the same place. Only a group of young people fleeing the city is found in the building now abandoned. It is the time of youth revolt and the "flower children". The building looks like a great place and sufficiently secluded to meet and play guitar.
Today: the farms of Puglia, about 150, are still there, between the provinces of Brindisi, Taranto, Bari, Lecce; appear suddenly between the state roads in the countryside, with the grandeur and dignity of those who have a long series of anecdotes and real-life stories to tell. Some have been restored and sometimes intended for new uses. Other, completely abandoned, living a lonely and difficult, perhaps risky, but not without its charm and still full of history.
There are many documents that attest to the 'activities of the ancient rural farms: already in Roman times there were buildings housing suitable for the care of the crops, a custom that continued under the Saracen domination and that continued with the farms reggie the Swabian-Angevin period.
These buildings respond to the same construction criteria, which divides them into two floors, where the top is the 'house of the Lord, or the "farmer" (in charge of agricultural land), and the ground floor houses the accomodation of farmers and the working zone.
Often the farms are built with blocks of white tuff, flexible, easy to take out, that in Puglia has also allowed the construction of many works of art. The buildings are surrounded by thick walls, which include extensive gardens, where there is a chapel and where, depending on the territory on which they arise, are cultivated olive trees, almond trees or vines.Walking around the country meet farms reminiscent gentilizzi palaces of the Venetian countryside, and others that look like castles, maybe because located near the coast, and made inaccessible to defend themselves from bandits, who often saw in Masserie a refuge where refreshments, assist Mass, or even, receive or send messages.
Source: www.turismo.it