For sale, Trullo Specchia - Trullo and arable land on sale in Specchia, Salento. On the hill (Murgia Salentina), 7 km away from Tricase (Adriatic coast) and 10 km away from Ionian coast. EXCELLENT POSITION - Specchia - Puglia

Description:

Besides the olive grove (3070 sq.m.), the estate is composed of "pajara", a typical farmhouse of Salento made of dry stone wall and a truncated cone roof, a "lamia" vaulted room also typical of the area, and a bakehouse, all in a good state, which it is possible to enlarge with the reconstruction of another room. The total covered area is 60 sq.m. about. The property is delimited with dry stone walls.


The Pajara

The Pajara (or Paiaru, Pagghiaru, Furniedhhu, Furnu, or Chipuru, according to local vernacular) is a rural construction, typical of Salento, built with the technique of dry-stone wall. Normally they are country’s isolated constructions but, there are some which are connected in groups of two or three units so making more complex buildings. Today they are representing one of the peculiar components of the Salentine landscape so that they are protected and turned to account by local institutions.

The pajaras are buildings similar to the more renowned trullis, in the shape of truncated cone, with a round or quadrangular plan, built with stones drawn from surrounding soils; “a secco” (dry) namely without the help of any mortar or support. The constructions have normally one single room without windows. They have a wall of considerable thickness, which secures a cool ambient inside even during the hottest months.

The furnieddhis were utilized as temporary shelter or storage (the word is supposed to be a straw storage formerly) but, in fact, they were utilized for different purposes, the last as dwelling by the peasants during summer time, when they removed their self from the town in order to comply with the work in the country from dawn to sunset. Not rarely inside the furnieddhu there were rustic fireplaces, cisterns and cabinets set in the sturdy walls.

Dating

It’s not exactly known the time of construction. Probably they were built in subsequent periods starting around 1000 A.D., during Byzantine time, with stones found during tillage of the soil, material by which were built also numerous fitted mortarless walls that are surrounding almost every land property in Salento. It’s not to be excluded a more ancient age either, between 2000 B.C. and the end of the Bronze Age, as an evolution of megalithic constructions such the “Specchie” (heaps of stones); other theories , enhanced by the likeness with other structures in the Mediterranean area, want the construction imported by the outside world in subsequent periods.

Typologies

There are various typologies of pajaras, whether for dimensions or ways of construction. The oldest pajaras are normally smaller and they have a stone perimeter and a covering made with tree trunks and branches; afterwards rocks only were employed. Some constructions have one stone ring as reinforcement to main structure, almost every pajara is equipped with an outer flight of steps in order to facilitate the access to the roof for eventual maintenances.

Variants

The Lamias or Lammias, are representing a variety of pajaras , with a quadrangular or rectangular base structure and a covering made by slabs of stone or earthenware roofing tiles.


Fitted mortarless wall

The dry-stone wall is a particular type of wall built with rocks appropriately arranged without any use of mortar or other types of adhesive. The construction of the wall requires generally a preparation of the base upon which the wall will be built, also by a digged layout, trying to reach the most hard and compact layer because the solidity of the wall will depend on the hardness of the ground. There are two typologies of fitted mortarless wall:

- Wall built with selected rough stones of the spot in various shapes and dimensions.
- Wall built with semifinished or finished stones of sizeable dimensions, coming from places different than a place of construction.

In the wall of which in the first case the stones are set in the way of making the contours coincide the most possible correcting the profile with stones eventually smaller and filling the gaps between one and the other. The duration and solidity of the wall itself will depend on the accuracy of such composition, a real mosaic or puzzle. This type of dry-stone wall is peculiar of the landscape around Hibla , in the terrace-cultivation of Mount Etna (Sicily) and Puglia, always to delimiting the land property. The same technique is applied in Ireland, especially in the North of the country, in order to separate the farms or, to the edge of the roads, for avoiding that the flock of sheeps to pasture can enter the communicating roads causing danger to traffic.

The second type of wall, on the contrary, is characteristic of more complex constructions and it can be found mostly in the rich areas of archeological remains in that was used for the base plans of the great constructions and for the walls.

The wall in history

The dry-stone wall has been the first example of human hand-made article and is extant in every culture of the earth. It represents indeed the first attempt of modifying the environment in order to get any use from it; either building a shelter or delimitating a place. It’s present in religious constructions, as in the case of the altars built by the Jewish Patriarchs of which is written in the Bible, or in nuraghes, Sardinia (Italy). The walls of the most ancient cities are built with huge blocks fitted without mortar, as well the stepped pyramids in Latin America. The ancient Greeks and then the Romans built dry-stone walls, either because they were cheaper or easier to build. For this reason you can still find such hand-made pieces of work in Greece and Balkan area also.



SPECCHIA

At about two km away stands Specchia, a country town which name derives from "specchie", a heap of stones going back to iron age, intended for defence and suirveillance of the territory. The town originated around the year one thousand and was, during the centuries, under the dominion of several noble families among the Monteroni, Del Balzo, Guarini, Protonobilissimo, Ripa, Risolo, till 1806, year of abolition of the feudality.

Inhabitants: 5,103
Altitude:131 m. above sea level. 
Distances: from S. Maria di Leuca are 20 km, Otranto and Gallipoli 30 km, Lecce 50 km, Brindisi (airport) km 85, Bari (airport) km 200.