Show 1 I ull OAT 9 adv 1 italy i P w i a amati l is 1 yos s S xa m wl akew aK Sw iw at 7 trull farmhouses Firm hou nir near Albe alberobello italy b tr the th nation G r aphis boole society t y D CF C among mans dwelling UNIQUE lioumes sea are the tru trulla 11 of the U I 1 heel ot of italia boot strange appearing dry mason tf ry cones each topping a separate parate le room they are hidden away between the obscure towns of francavilla Franca Frane avilla llla and alber be bello on the edge 0 of the billowing hillo liella 0 of a limestone ridge le klurge wh which t ch parallels the adriatic between two flat plains the lere dl di lecce to the south and the lere dl di puglia to the north literally tavo fare means checkerboard and an d the smal email rectangular farms la in these plains contrasting with each other in the varying colors of tae rap earth or the grain or grass or trees sustain the figure francavilla Is 21 miles east of taranto on the railway line to brindisi and here a leisurely second rate bran branch eh line meanders northwestward 83 85 miles through rolling country to Alb and thence in the same direct direction ioa to darl barl leaving taranto tho the train trails eastward ea 8 across green fields dripping 1 th the blood red of poppies pop ples past or orchards hards of peaches plums cherries c almonds and young olives or comparatively ively young olives bolh es for the youth of most any olive tree dates back by centuries c ent urles past grazing ing stretches mottled tj e with A ith yellow cows and black sheep alekel a level terrain and rich it if the numerous well bunt farm establishments at franca villa it Is necessary to change to another train which takes one deeper into the heart of the country tiie the carriages on this branch railway reaching into the foothills of le beurge are mere toys tor for size there are no second class compartments so no that the traveler Is tempted to cast his lot with the third class the carriages are not sealed off into compartments I 1 in the murglen Murf llan hills hill 1 the train soon leaves the checkerboard of lecce behind and climbs into the rolling country of the curgian hills within a few miles the whole aspect ot of life and nature changes ones first se tense u so of tills this change Is w when hen tho the bro brown w n soll soil becomes delicately I 1 y flecked with white the first out crop pt of these limestone ridges gradually the stones increase in size and number and with this increase the efforts of the peasants to dispose of them came into evidence with the low loosely plied piled walls walla which begin to line the landscape mile by mile the walls increase in breadth and height to a size alze ridiculously beyond what Is practical as a barrier tapering slightly from a 5 foot or 0 foot base and rising 4 or 5 feet high As they increase in size they grow to la number making the fields smaller and smaller though there Is more and more moie stone in these fences scarcely less seems to remain to in the ever white necked flecked soil which nevertheless supports grain and vines ines and aad fruit trees no less astonishing results of the effort to rid the soil of stone are the great cubical ricks of 0 them which rise lo in the middle of some fields and then suddenly ono one has his first glimpse of the strange cottages with high conical roofs rising like pointed domes above low perpendicular side fide walls irom the car window it Is seen that they are built of small flat slabs or at slates ates of geld field limestone one later learns ms that the construction Is invariably y aldry dry that Is without mortar or cement to hold bold the stones together this self supporting dry constructed conical roof to Is one of the wonders of stone masonry and its like is probably not to be found anywhere else it Is small wonder that one comes upon the with surprise science jd ja dubious about them and so keeps a call cautious flous tongue it Is difficult to A find d even a single map that mentions the region most economical houses probably nowhere else in the entire civilized world will one find more economical houses bouses the material costs the builder tul lder nothing he Is no teyen teven at the expense of 0 carting tance he be sail the stones on the spot where he be builds builes the stones are arc used in the tint flat irregular form irk in which they crop out of the toll soil no 10 there Is no DO cost for up the material the th farmer by gathering lip this ma barial for his hl bouse belya to clear his ito unas and so oo places more mere IOU at t tits bis disposition for cultivation moreover construction costs nothing but um time for each farmer builds build Us his own ova without the expense of architect or mason finally it Is in a building which seems to stand indefinitely with a in minimum of renewal or repair in the region of the oruill one searches the landscape in vain for houses which are not tr truell u ill there are no others in eve every ry direction one sees noes only their quaint conical roofs and by one of the curiosities of structural custom here one nay may even at a distance tell at a glance of how many rooms each house consists 6 for if it have more than tha one room then each additional room has its own conical root roof the with one cone may represent a storehouse or an animal shelter or the dwelling of one of the poorest country folk according to the means of bf the builder or the increasing size of his bis family as lie he adds rooms he adds a cone con above each of them so that larger amul present a family group of two or three or four or even of seven seten or eight cones in each domestic unit these houses make an instant appeal to the imagination la in the little commune of martina martana franca alono alone there are nearly 2000 there are more oruill in the 25 miles from francavilla to alberobello Albe the extent of the dot del oruill region of the truitt Trul ll than there are in the entire island of sardinia look like glint giant beehives As one looks out upon the bewildering multitude of the strange cottages a cone or a group of cones every few hundred feet in all directions for miles and miles the effect I 1 Is a without parallel it t suggests not only a world of queer prehistoric tombs or giant beehives or titanic candle snuffers ferit but a world of pe petrified trifled haystacks or a vast military camp of ancient ro boman tents abandoned and turned to stone it Is difficult to tell whether the effect Is elfin or gargantuan but it Is wholly unreal and indescribably fascinating it might be the of an illustrator of a fairy story come coma to life one Is at first astonished by the apparently patently ly needless waste of material and effort that goes into the building of a its side walls though seldom beldom so high as eight feet vary in thickness from five to as much as seven feet tola this might be interpreted as a survival of an age of defended habitations tat ions but in reality the explanation lies iles in the tillers necessity to rid his bis land of rock so that he may cultivate its rich lime ilme laden soli soil nowhere in trull lland Is to be seen more mora than a single entrance door in the entire walled circumference of 0 even the largest of windows even under a group of cones indicating several rooms there are few worthy of tho the name occasionally signally sio nally an opening appears in the wall but it Is rarely more than IS 15 inches square and the wall nail about it Is so thick that only a minimum of light and not any sunshine can enter laid without mortar the door Is generally not more than the height of a south italians head and the lintel Is horizontal the variation on this in the more pretentious Is uniform it opens for a deep round arch them the inner end of this arch Is walled and a thin secondary wall nail Is pierced by a small rectangular door the stones are laid flat without mortar or cement and there la Is no suggestion of a keystone now then Is this conical dome sustained T examine a in course of construction st and the explanation like the explanation of so many other marvels becomes simple the builders chisel each and every stone atone la in key stone fashion they lay them in an ascending and diminishing spiral every stone in the dome ot of a Is a keystone for each one wedges the others this geometrical construction makes it more solid than cement another astonishing thing Is that the rough heavy slates are ara usually laid aid two and often three stones to the width of a course the courses circling and narrowing in diameter as they approach tho the top the higher and more slender the cone the more beautiful nd and graceful it Is but it Is tho the squatter cones which especially excite wonder as to how cheso dry un attic tures bold themselves up I 1 |