The Roverella of Pilapalucci grows inside the walls of a working farm, which means nobody wanders up to it by accident. Masseria Storica Pilapalucci is a fortified farmstead dating to the 16th century, listed among Italy's historic private houses, and this downy oak stands in its olive and almond groves rather than beside a public road. The masseria opens its gates for scheduled events, among them a guided walk through the groves that stops at the tree it calls its own monumental specimen, which is how an outsider gets to stand under it at all. Downy oak is the working oak of the Murgia plateau, built for thin limestone soil and dry summers rather than for spectacle, and this one has done the ordinary thing for a very long time: a trunk just over three metres round, a crown reaching twenty metres up. Nobody wrote down when it was planted. Centuries of farm labour around a masseria rarely leave that kind of note, and the regional register that protects it records size and species, never a birth date. The visit is real, just conditional. Check the masseria's own event calendar before making the drive out to Toritto, and go on a day it is actually open.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Masseria Storica Pilapalucci, Contrada Pilapalucci, Toritto (BA)You can recognise it as the oak standing in the olive and almond groves inside the masseria's walls. It stands at Masseria Storica Pilapalucci, in Contrada Pilapalucci, Toritto.
Private working farm (Masseria Storica Pilapalucci, a 16th century farmstead on Italy's ADSI register of historic houses). Not open to casual walk-up visitors; the tree stands inside the farm's own grounds among its olive and almond groves. It is included on the masseria's scheduled public events, such as its Ferragosto walk, which anyone can book; check the masseria's own calendar before visiting.
By car only, no public transport reaches Toritto's rural contrade from Bari in a reasonable time. Roughly 30-35 minutes' drive from central Bari.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: Regione Puglia
- Regione Puglia: Elenco degli alberi monumentali della Regione Puglia (register_id 02/L220/BA/16, girth 305cm, height 20m, comune Toritto, locality…
- MASAF, Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia (Italy's national register of monumental trees) (sheet_id 02/L220/BA/16, same figures, same coordin…
- masseriapilapalucci.it
