The long grassy roads
The Regional Document for the Enhancement of the Tratturi of Puglia, drawn up by the Region with the Polytechnic of Bari, the University of Foggia and the Province of Foggia, describes the tratturi as an extraordinary feature of the Adriatic territory between Abruzzo and Puglia, through Molise, Campania and Basilicata, from the Tavoliere to the Ionian area of Taranto.
The network was divided into tratturi, sixty Neapolitan paces wide, about 111 metres, tratturelli of about 55 metres and narrower branches. The main tratturi were marked by numbered stone posts carved with the letters R.T., Regio Tratturo. Along the way stood inns, bakeries and small churches for rest, supplies and the shepherds’ religious life.
On the widest tratturi, travelled by flocks for two or three weeks in autumn and a similar period in May, there was a central strip almost bare from the constant passage of animals and carts, called the viale armentizio, and two side strips where sheep could graze. Today, the document notes, many of these roads have become streets, but posts and traces make them quite different from ordinary paths.
Sources: Regione Puglia — La rete tratturale pugliese e il Documento Regionale di Valorizzazione (2023)
A network between Abruzzo, the Tavoliere and the Murgia
According to the Regional Document, transhumance is a very ancient practice found in many parts of the world, but it was in southern Italy that it produced a particularly dense network of tratturi, still largely recognisable. The 1959 Map of the Tratturi counts for the whole South 14 tratturi, 71 tratturelli, 13 branches and 9 resting pastures.
In Puglia the same map records 9 tratturi, 61 tratturelli, 8 branches and 3 resting pastures, most numerous in the Daunian Subapennines, the Tavoliere and the Bari Murgia, but also present on the Gargano, in the Land of Ravines and around Taranto. Among the main tratturi the document lists L’Aquila-Foggia, Celano-Foggia, Lucera-Castel di Sangro, Pescasseroli-Candela, Foggia-Campolato, Foggia-Ofanto, Barletta-Grumo and Melfi-Castellaneta.
A 1980 regional law recognises the tratturi as the Region’s pastoral public land, and a 2003 law brings them together in the Parco dei tratturi della Puglia, defined as a monument of the territory’s economic and social history. Many stretches, the source concludes, cross fine landscapes and can become resources for slow tourism.
Sources: Regione Puglia — La rete tratturale pugliese e il Documento Regionale di Valorizzazione (2023)
The Customs of the sheep drive
The Regional Document reconstructs the history. Short-distance flock movements already existed before the Romans, but long-distance transhumance is clearly attested in the late Republican period, when the expansion of public land made large pastures available. After the fall of the Empire evidence becomes scarce, until the Normans, Swabians and Angevins issue new measures.
The turning point came in 1447, when Alfonso of Aragon established the Royal Customs of the sheep drive of Puglia, based first in Lucera and soon after in Foggia. Transhumance became compulsory for owners of at least twenty sheep of the gentile breed, in exchange for easy passage and protection. Timing was strict: flocks could not leave the mountains before 15 September nor cross the Biferno before 15 October. In the eighteenth century transhumance between Abruzzo and Puglia involved about one and a half million sheep.
The Customs were abolished in 1806, but protection of the tratturi remained. Transhumance on foot declined rapidly in the twentieth century; in 1983 the tratturi were recognised as assets of historical and archaeological interest.
Sources: Regione Puglia — La rete tratturale pugliese e il Documento Regionale di Valorizzazione (2023) · Regione Puglia — La visione strategica e le sinergie tra il DRV e gli altri strumenti di pianificazione
Passes, resting pastures and the counting of flocks
On entering Puglia, the Regional Document explains, the tratturi passed through six compulsory passes, among them Ascoli and Candela, Melfi and Spinazzola, watched by mounted guards. To them were handed the passate: the entry pass, with the authorised day and the number of animals declared, and the exit pass, certifying payment of the fida, the fee for using the pastures.
The second part of the document, devoted to the strategic vision, specifies that the network’s branches reached deep into the so-called fiscal Tavoliere, the lands under the Customs’ jurisdiction, divided into holdings that included never-ploughed pastures and cultivated land. Jurisdiction extended to the resting pastures too: the general ones, wide grasslands where herds waited for the allocation of winter pastures, were Saccione, between the Trigno, Biferno and Fortore, the Montagna dell’Angelo on the Gargano, and the Murge. There the livestock was counted, setting the fida owed to the treasury.
Alongside the movement of animals there was thus an economic and administrative organisation: pastures, stops and routes belonged to one system.
Sources: Regione Puglia — La rete tratturale pugliese e il Documento Regionale di Valorizzazione (2023) · Regione Puglia — La visione strategica e le sinergie tra il DRV e gli altri strumenti di pianificazione
From the Subapennines to the Gargano: two tratturi to know
Among the areas studied in the Regional Document, two are of special interest to travellers between Daunia and the Gargano. The Pescasseroli-Candela, the third-longest tratturo in southern Italy, starts in Abruzzo and reaches Puglia after crossing Molise and Campania. In Puglia it passes five towns of the Daunian Subapennines: Monteleone di Puglia, Anzano di Puglia, Sant’Agata di Puglia, Rocchetta Sant’Antonio and Candela, from which a tratturello continues towards Cerignola and the Foggia-Ofanto tratturo.
The Foggia-Campolato leaves the centre of Foggia and leads to the foot of the Gargano, in the municipality of Monte Sant’Angelo, where it joins the Campolato-Vieste tratturello, which crosses the promontory to within a few kilometres of the coast. The document stresses that on some stretches, clearly readable in the landscape, transhumance is still practised, and lists among key themes the enhancement of the route within the Gargano National Park.
Other historic links thus join the Foggia plain with the Gargano mountains: a network that helps understand the relationship between lowland and upland, and between town and pasture.
Sources: Regione Puglia — La rete tratturale pugliese e il Documento Regionale di Valorizzazione (2023)
Jazzi: the shepherds’ stopping places in the Murgia
On the Murge plateau transhumance left an architecture of its own. The Alta Murgia National Park presents Jazzo Tarantini as a notable example of dry-stone rural building, in an area of steppe and fields on the side of a shallow karst groove. Jazzi were used mainly for sheep farming.
They appear as large rectangular enclosures divided by inner walls. Along the sides are the stables, called lamioni, and usually, on the opposite side, the rooms where workers lived and milk was processed. The Park explains that their origin lies precisely in transhumance, the seasonal migration of shepherds, flocks and workers handling milk and wool, already widespread in Roman times.
The Regional Document also recalls that the Murge were among the general resting pastures, and that a royal tratturello crosses the Alta Murgia National Park. Visiting a jazzo gives a concrete face to the tratturo network: here flocks rested, here produce was made, and here the landscape still bears the marks of that work.
Sources: Parco nazionale dell’Alta Murgia — Jazzo Tarantini · Regione Puglia — La rete tratturale pugliese e il Documento Regionale di Valorizzazione (2023)
A shared heritage, from Molise to UNESCO
Puglia’s tratturi are part of a network crossing several regions. Italia.it, on its Molise page, describes the tratturi as ancient grassy ways along which flocks moved in autumn from Abruzzo’s pastures to the Tavoliere and in summer the other way. Among the most important it names the Pescasseroli-Candela, about two hundred kilometres long, and the L’Aquila-Foggia tratturo, also called the Tratturo Magno or King’s Tratturo; in Molise the tratturi have been protected as a regional park since 1997.
UNESCO has inscribed transhumance on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as a nomination shared by several countries including Italy, extended in 2023. The entry describes the seasonal movement of people and animals along traditional routes, in spring and autumn, and the social and economic system that grew around it: food, crafts and festivals marking the start and end of the season.
According to UNESCO, transhumance strengthens cultural identity and ties between communities and territories, countering rural depopulation: a useful key for anyone visiting the towns along the tratturi.
Sources: Italia.it — I tratturi del Molise · UNESCO — Transhumance, the seasonal droving of livestock (Representative List)
A line that tells more than a walk
Before setting out, look at a map and choose a node: a settlement, a junction, a pass or the relationship between plain and upland. Once there, ask what function that position might have had. The tratturo becomes a key to reading space, even without following a long route.
You can compare the passage, the edges and land uses, keeping what is historically documented separate from what you see today. A post carved R.T., a small church by the road, the unusual width of a country lane can all be clues. The interesting detail is often a relationship between elements rather than a monument to reach as the goal of the visit.
We do not present the whole network as one continuous trail: many stretches are now roads, others cross private land or leased areas. To walk, choose marked stretches or go with local guides, and check access conditions. The value of the experience lies in reading the landscape, not in the kilometres covered.
Shepherds, towns and table: choosing a stretch
For a journey in northern Puglia we suggest combining a reading of the landscape with a stop in town and a thoughtful cheese tasting. The link is work: moving, resting, transforming a raw material. At the table you can compare a fresh product with an aged one, without automatically giving every recipe a pastoral pedigree.
We suggest building a territorial chapter rather than measuring the trip in kilometres. One point of the network and one town may be enough: Candela or Sant’Agata di Puglia for the Pescasseroli-Candela, Monte Sant’Angelo for the Foggia-Campolato, a jazzo for the Murgia. Keep time outdoors separate from time for reading and lunch.
Choose the period according to the walk or observation: spring and autumn, the historic seasons of transhumance, offer suitable temperatures and a greener landscape. The history of transhumance does not, however, allow us to promise flocks passing on a given date: any events should be checked in local calendars. For lovers of cultural routes, comparison with dry-stone building can open another chapter.
A thread for your journey
A tratturo can be read through its edges, junctions and the relationship between settlements and fields. We do not present the whole route as one continuous trail: its history can guide the choice of individual places.
Talk to us
