The UNESCO listing at Alberobello covers more than 1,5001 trulli in the Monti and Aia Piccola districts, but the one building you buy a ticket for is the Trullo Sovrano, at €2.50 (2026).
1,500 trulli on 10.52 hectares
The protected zone covers 10.521 hectares in two districts, Rione Monti and Rione Aia Piccola, and holds more than 1,5001 trulli. It has been on the World Heritage list since 1996, under criteria (iii), (iv) and (v).
That is just over a tenth of a square kilometer. The listing is two neighborhoods, not the whole town.
Dry stone, no mortar, and a cistern underneath
Each trullo is built in dry stone with limestone slabs called chiancarelle, without mortar: a double wall with loose fill between, and an underground cistern that collects rainwater.
That construction is what the listing protects. The conical roofs are the part everyone photographs; the cistern under the floor is the part nobody sees.
Built from the 1500s, stopped after 1797
Trulli stood in Rione Monti by the middle of the 16th century, the town grew after 16201, and in 17971 Ferdinand IV of Bourbon made Alberobello a royal city, after which new trulli stopped being built.
Parts of the town were declared a national monument between 1909 and 1936, sixty years before UNESCO.
The Trullo Sovrano: €2.50 and a midday break
The Trullo Sovrano, at Piazza Sacramento 10, is visited on a single €2.50 ticket (2026). The hours are split: 10 am to 12:45 pm and 3:30 to 6:30 pm from April to October, 10 am to 12:45 pm and 3:30 to 6 pm from November to March.
The midday gap is the trap. The shop trulli in Rione Monti stay open through lunch and the Sovrano doesn't, so an arrival at 1 pm means waiting until 3:30.
What the official site does not say
The official site does not publish the height, the number of floors or the century of construction of the Trullo Sovrano.
Those figures appear on plenty of other pages. They're left out here until the operator publishes them, because a number repeated often enough starts to look sourced when it isn't.
Castel del Monte, for the same trip
Castel del Monte at Andria costs €9 full and €2 reduced, and €12 on a combined ticket with the Castello di Trani (2026).
Next to that, the Trullo Sovrano is a €2.50 stop, and the real cost of Alberobello is time around the midday closure rather than money. Details at Castel del Monte, the region at Puglia, and the full list at UNESCO sites in Puglia.
FAQ
Can you go inside a trullo in Alberobello?
What time does the Trullo Sovrano close for lunch?
When were the trulli of Alberobello listed by UNESCO?
Is the Trullo Sovrano the only two-story trullo?
Section and topics
Sources (3)
- 1787 · 10.52Ministero della cultura - Ufficio UNESCO; Commissione Nazionale Italiana per l'UNESCO · recheck by 2099-12-31
- 22.5Trullo Sovrano - Alberobello; doc 2 · recheck by 2027-06-30
- 39 · 2 · 12Castel del Monte - Ministero della cultura · recheck by 2027-06-30
