The baroque of the Itria Valley and its festival
On the southern edge of the Itria Valley, at over 400 metres, Martina Franca is the largest town of the valley and one of the most elegant in Apulia. Founded in the fourteenth century, it flourished in the eighteenth century under the Caracciolo dukes, who transformed it into a jewel of baroque and rococo architecture, unusual in its white stone: an old town of whitewashed lanes, the "vicoli", where the façades of palaces and churches are decorated with balconies of wrought iron, curving portals and stucco.
The heart of the town is the Basilica of San Martino, with a lavish baroque façade and a statue of St Martin on horseshoe sharing his cloak, and the Palazzo Ducale, built from 1668 for Duke Petracone V Caracciolo, with frescoed rooms. Piazza Plebiscito and Piazza Maria Immacolata, with its semicircular portico, are the meeting places of the town. Every summer since 1975, Martina hosts the Festival della Valle d'Itria, one of the most important opera festivals in Italy, specialising in rare and forgotten works of the baroque and bel canto, performed in the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale. Martina is also famous for the capocollo di Martina Franca, a cured pork neck flavoured with vino cotto and smoked, and its white wine, Martina DOC.
Tip: the countryside around is dotted with trulli and masserie; the "fornelli pronti" of the town also serve excellent bombette.
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