centro storico, agricolo, concentrico, difensivo, Capurso, Locus Capursii (denominazione storica), Castrum Capursii (denominazione storica)

On the road southeast from Bari, Capurso is the first of the old agricultural towns you meet. Its historic centre is a near-perfect ellipse, a form dictated by the defensive ditch and walls that once girdled the medieval castrum. Within this tight circuit, the feudal castle stood guard over a warren of narrow lanes and tiny alleys. Byzantine in origin, a small farm settlement of the ninth or tenth century, the town later grew around a Norman stronghold, whose remains were eventually incorporated into a Renaissance palazzo, itself entirely demolished after the last war. The street pattern survives, however, with its characteristic external staircases, the gaifo, arching over a vicolo to reach the upper floor. The focal point now is the vast Piazza Giacomo Matteotti, dominated by the eighteenth-century Santuario della Madonna del Pozzo, built after a miraculous icon was found in a cistern. Capurso remains a compact, concentrated place, its circular plan still legible.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.