Alberobello

After a visit to Alberobello it was fascinating reading about its history...

The Origens of Alberobello
The people mainly involved in the birth and development of the so called Selva were the Acpuaviva Counts who ruled, sometimes with goodness and sometimes with feudal wickedness, keeping the villagers under servile submission to them.
The story of the Acquaviva family in Italy began in the sixth century.
They came from Baveria and established themselves in Abruzzo.
Between 616 and 772, two cardinals Pampiniano and Stefano Acquvivawere first heard of in Puglia and later a very scholarly monk, Alberigo Acquviva, too.
In 1455, following the marriage of Giuliantonio I to the Princess Caterina del Balzo of Taranto, lineage gained the County of Conversano which it governed from 1481 till 1797.
There were twelve Counts, some... following distinction in combat or by intermarrying with other families,also held the title of Duke.
Their lives were identified with emancipation and development of the Selva and so that we can follow them more closely we make notes of their names, dates of birth and anything that particularly distinguished them and then the year of their deaths:
Giuliantonio I the founder of the family in Puglia, who, after his marriage to Caterina del Balzo, took over the County of Conveesano. He died in battle in Otranto.
Andrea Matteo, 1457-1529, levied a tax on whoever settled in the Selva.