Everyone who visits Puglia goes to the coast — the trulli, the white towns, the turquoise sea. Nobody goes inland. The Alta Murgia is what they're missing: a vast limestone plateau rising 400-600 meters above sea level, covered in pseudo-steppe grasslands that stretch to every horizon, punctuated by dry-stone walls, ancient sheep tracks (tratturi), and — rising from the plateau like an octagonal hallucination — Castel del Monte, Frederick II's enigmatic 13th-century fortress-palace and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is Puglia before the sea. Puglia before the tourists. Puglia at its most ancient and most strange. Puglia guide → · Nature Italy →
Plan my Alta Murgia trip →Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, built this octagonal castle around 1240. Nobody knows exactly why. It has no moat, no drawbridge, no kitchen, no stables — nothing that makes a castle a castle. Eight octagonal towers on an octagonal plan, oriented precisely to the cardinal and intercardinal directions, with mathematical proportions that have generated 800 years of scholarly debate. Was it a hunting lodge? An astronomical observatory? A temple to geometry? A bath complex? Nobody knows. It sits alone on a hilltop, visible for miles across the Murgia, and it is one of the most hauntingly beautiful buildings in Italy. €10 entry. Allow 1 hour. Go at sunset when the Apulian stone turns gold.
The Alta Murgia plateau is one of the last extensive pseudo-steppe grasslands in Western Europe — a landscape of wild grasses, orchids (50+ species in spring), rocky outcrops, and an emptiness that feels more like Central Asia than Mediterranean Italy. This is where the transhumance routes (tratturi) crossed: ancient sheep highways, up to 111 meters wide, along which millions of sheep moved annually between the Abruzzo mountains and the Puglian plains for over 2,000 years. The tratturo Bari-L'Aquila crosses the park. Lesser kestrels: the Alta Murgia hosts one of Europe's largest breeding colonies. In spring, hundreds of these small falcons nest in the old masserie (fortified farms) and hunt over the grasslands at dusk — a spectacle.
Cava dei Dinosauri (Altamura): In a limestone quarry near Altamura, thousands of dinosaur footprints from 80 million years ago are preserved in the rock. The site is managed by the municipality — guided visits available (check comune.altamura.ba.it). In the same town, the "Uomo di Altamura" — a 150,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton found fused into the stalactites of the Lamalunga cave in 1993 — is one of the most complete Neanderthal specimens ever found. The cave is not visitable, but a reproduction is in the Palazzo Baldassarre museum (€5). Pulo di Altamura: a 500-meter-wide, 75-meter-deep sinkhole (dolina) — essentially a collapsed cave system. Free access. The scale is stunning when you stand on the rim.
Main access: Altamura (the main town), Gravina in Puglia (spectacular canyon town), Andria (for Castel del Monte). Nearest stations: Bari Centrale (then car or Ferrovie Appulo Lucane train to Altamura, 1h). Entry: free. Castel del Monte: €10. Season: year-round. Spring (March-May) for orchids and wildflowers. Autumn for mild weather and harvest. Summer: hot on the exposed plateau (€35+°C). Stay: Altamura (€50-80/night — famous for its bread, the best in Italy), Gravina (€45-75), masserie in the park (€70-140). Eat: Altamura bread (DOP, baked in wood-fired ovens, lasts a week), focaccia di Altamura, cardoncelli mushrooms, lamb. Tre Archi in Altamura (€25-35). Combine with: Matera (20min from Altamura), Alberobello (45min), Gravina in Puglia canyon (15min), Bari (1h).