I luoghi del fare: dalla conoscenza alla valorizzazione del patrimonio rurale pugliese = The places of making : from knowledge to valorization of Apulian rural heritage

In 2010, the Mediterranean Diet was added as an oral tradition to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a deserved recognition of the historical value of a lifestyle that was shaped by centuries-old wisdom, intrinsically bound to landscape history. Indeed, however abstract the idea of diet may seem, it is deeply rooted into factual data, such as land and work. Pastime societies, whose life was strictly intertwined with agriculture and farming, left tangible traces of their social structure in buildings having highly specific purposes and typological traits. Several scholars have researched upon landscape, from a both historical and geographical point of view, including Emilio Sereni, Lucio Gambi and Franco Farinelli. The same way, rural building inspired numerous works, one above all the series of volumes about Italian rural abodes, published by Olschki since the 1930s. The places of agricultural production have always raised the interest of numerous researchers, also because of the crucial role these locations have played in the history of landscape and landscape transformation. The intangible theme of food culture is interwoven with the intrinsically material aspects of an architecture shaped by its own function, with recognizable configurations and typologies that were left unchanged until the end of World War II. Investigating on what remains of this world implies the essential need to acquire a detailed knowledge of the territory and its transformations over the centuries. Thus, the surely important archive research must go hand in hand with a research campaign that has surveying as its main tool. The research focused on an area expanding from the coastal area south of Bari to the Murgian upland. This allowed collecting a complete record of various typologies and functions in regions historically characterized by different kinds of cultivation. While olive oil mills can be found in olive tree areas, palmenti are typical of wine-making zones, the same way manor farms, surrounded by large cereal-cultivated latifundia, were placed side by side with jazzi, the culmination of tratturi. In these places food culture was born, and they can be rescued from dereliction thanks to specific policies committed to knowledge, valorization and fruition, also in compliance with the PPTR.