The Territory of Ostuni: The plain represents the top surface of a large sandstone – calcarenite bank that slopes slightly towards the sea. Its morphological-visual limit, to the west, is constituted by the slope of the Murgia plateau, particularly imposing and steep and almost totally covered by wooded vegetation, which, starting from the center of Ostuni, towards the south-east, gradually lowers to dissolve in the Brindisi plain.
To the north-east, the limit is constituted by the coastline, whose morphology is complicated by an alternation of low and sandy stretches – from Torre Canne to Torre S. Leonardo; from Torre Guaceto to Case Bianche – and of extensive stretches of high coast particularly jagged by erosion, both marine and aeolian. A system of coastal dunes still rich in vegetation and sporadic humid areas behind the dunes run parallel to the coast. This longitudinal system is interspersed with numerous parallel blades which, crossing the plain from north-west to south-east, open onto the coast in small inlets with a sandy bottom.
The structuring element of this landscape is the olive grove, clearly prevalent and present with a high density of centuries-old trees with irregular sixths, testifying to the historicity of the plant and its uses. There are also vines and arable crops, which interrupt the predominantly uniformity of the olive grove with more regular fields. A dense system of dry stone walls emphasizes the delimitation of the fields and the farm network connecting the numerous farms.
The settlement system is characterized by two main subsystems, linear discontinuous. The first, internal, has the Adriatic as its main axis, along which the centers of Fasano and Ostuni are arranged, one at the foot, the other on the top of the ridge and, in any case, both in a dominant position with respect to the plain.
The second subsystem consists of coastal settlements, which have sprung up, sometimes from very small existing nuclei, near the coastal towers or small landings, as tourist centers and second homes, favored by the E55 highway which, running parallel to the coast, forms the backbone of a comb system of roads that connect the interchanges to the centers.
The two main systems are connected and integrated by a third subsystem, secondary to the first two, consisting of small settlements, including productive ones, supported by the ancient inland-coast connection roads (which now reach the coastal centers), especially where railway stations have operated by small local attractors.
It is also possible to read a more precise and widespread system made up of: farmhouses; of religious structures; of coastal towers, of small ports of call, which represent visual and relational cornerstones of the structural invariants of the plain.
The territory of Ostuni is waiting to be discovered.
