Altamura, Puglia: DOP Bread and a Frederick II Cathedral

In 1993, construction workers in a cave called Lamalunga near Altamura broke through into a chamber that had been sealed for millennia. In the torchlight, they saw a human skull staring back at them. Not a recent skull — a skull embedded in the cave’s limestone walls, surrounded by calcite concretions that had been building up around the bones for 130,000 years.

The skeleton was a Neanderthal. One of the most complete ever found. And it could not be moved.

🦴 The Town Where a Neanderthal Has Been Waiting 130,000 Years

Over 130 millennia, the calcite deposits had slowly encased the skeleton in the cave wall — fusing bone to rock in a process so gradual and so complete that extraction would destroy what it sought to preserve. The Altamura Man (Uomo di Altamura) remains exactly where he was found. In the cave where he died, in the position in which he fell, surrounded by the same rock that has been absorbing him for 130,000 years. Scientists visit the cave to study him — taking DNA samples, analysing isotopes, measuring the bones through the concretion — but the Neanderthal himself stays.

The discovery was significant beyond the completeness of the skeleton. DNA analysis confirmed that the Altamura Man belonged to the Neanderthal lineage — the first ancient DNA successfully extracted from a Neanderthal found in Italy. The bone chemistry revealed dietary information. The cave environment revealed behavioural data. He fell into the cave — probably into a well or pit — and could not get out. He waited there, in the dark, until he did not.

That story is the most extraordinary thing about Altamura, Puglia. But the town has considerably more to offer than one prehistoric resident.

📅 Best Time to Visit Altamura

Season	Conditions	Verdict
April – May	Mild 16–22°C, Alta Murgia plateau vivid green, uncrowded.	✅✅ Outstanding
June	Warm, full services, long evenings.	✅✅ Excellent
July – August	Hot inland (35°C+), quieter than coastal towns.	✅ Go early morning
September – October	Warm, quieter, harvest season on the plateau.	✅✅ Excellent
November – March	Cool, very quiet, cathedral and museum at their best.	✅ Good for the serious visitor
Festa del Pane	Bread Festival — annual, typically autumn.	⭐ Worth timing your visit around

April, May, and September are the best months — mild temperatures for walking the historic centre, the Alta Murgia plateau at its most attractive, and the museum and cathedral without peak-season crowds.

💡 The Alta Murgia in late April is one of the most beautiful landscapes in inland Puglia — the limestone plateau covered in wildflowers, the sky enormous above it, the distant silhouettes of Altamura and Matera on the horizon. If you’re combining Altamura with a Matera visit, late April is the best single window for both.

🏛️ What to See in Altamura

The Altamura Man — The World’s Most Remarkable Prehistoric Site

The Lamalunga cave where the Altamura Man was found is not open to general visitors — the site is a protected scientific research zone managed by the Italian Ministry of Culture. But the Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Altamura in the historic centre houses the fullest available documentation of the discovery: casts of the skeleton sections, DNA analysis results, isotope data on the Neanderthal’s diet, and the scientific interpretation of everything the site has revealed since 1993.

What the museum can’t replicate is the knowledge of what’s in the cave — that 8 kilometres from the town centre, in a sealed chamber in the limestone bedrock, a complete Neanderthal skeleton is still in exactly the position it was when the Neanderthal died. This is, by any reasonable assessment, one of the most extraordinary prehistoric facts about any Italian city. Allow an hour for the museum, which covers the region’s archaeology from the Neolithic through the Roman period as well as the Altamura Man.

Address: Via Santeramo 88, Altamura Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 9am–7pm (verify locally) Admission: Approximately €4 (verify locally)

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta — Frederick II’s Commission

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta at the centre of the Piazza Duomo is one of the finest Romanesque cathedrals in Puglia — and one of the few buildings that Frederick II commissioned rather than inherited. The Emperor ordered its construction in 1232, personally specifying elements of the design including the distinctive facade arrangement.

The most architecturally unusual feature is immediately visible from the piazza: the facade has two portals placed side by side — an arrangement found in almost no other Romanesque cathedral in Italy. The reason for this double entrance has been debated by architectural historians, with theories ranging from liturgical practicality to symbolic meaning connected to Frederick II’s particular theological and philosophical positions.

The portals themselves are extraordinary. The main portal is framed by a canopy supported by two lions — a common Apulian Romanesque motif — with carved figures of the twelve apostles in the archivolt above. The stone carving is of the quality associated with the best Pugliese Romanesque workshops of the 13th century.

The bell tower adjacent to the cathedral is a free-standing structure that postdates the original construction. Climbing it provides one of the finest panoramic views over the Alta Murgia plateau — the flatness of the land, the distant edges where the plateau falls away, and the particular quality of the light over limestone country.

The interior is a triple-naved basilica of considerable scale, with later Gothic modifications visible in the vaulting above the nave and a series of good Renaissance and Baroque altarpieces in the side chapels. The crypt houses the remains of several important local ecclesiastical figures.

Admission: Free Hours: Daily 8am–12pm and 4pm–7pm (verify locally) Cathedral climb: Small fee for the bell tower

💡 The cathedral in the early morning — before the piazza fills — has the best light on the carved portal. The east-facing facade catches the morning sun directly, and the shadow-play on the carved figures at low angles is extraordinary.

The Historic Centre — Alta Murgia Stone

The centro storico of Altamura is compact and coherent — a medieval urban fabric of narrow lanes, covered passages, and small piazzas built almost entirely in the local pale limestone that gives the old town its particular golden-white character in morning light.

The streets around Piazza Duomo are the most characterful — lined with stone facades of various periods, the occasional medieval arcade, and the particular mixture of workshop, bar, and residence that marks a functioning Italian provincial city rather than a museum piece. The smell of baking bread — from the wood-fired ovens that operate throughout the day in the historic centre — is present at almost every hour.

Via Duomo and the surrounding lanes have the highest concentration of the traditional panifici (bakeries) that still produce Pane di Altamura DOP in wood-fired ovens. Several offer direct retail from the bakery — you can buy a whole loaf warm from the oven, which is the only way to understand what the bread is actually capable of.

The Palazzo Baldassarre and other civic buildings around the piazza represent the town’s 15th and 16th-century prosperity — decorative doorways, carved window surrounds, and facade details that reward close attention while walking between the cathedral and the museum.

The Alta Murgia National Park

The Parco Nazionale dell’Alta Murgia surrounds Altamura on three sides — a protected landscape of limestone plateau, scrub oak, and ancient pastoral land that is one of the least-visited national parks in southern Italy. The park covers approximately 68,000 hectares and includes significant prehistoric sites, traditional transhumance routes (the ancient paths along which shepherds moved their flocks seasonally between the plateau and the coast), and a flora and fauna specific to the limestone karst environment.

For walkers and cyclists, the park offers marked trails of varying difficulty through a landscape that is flat by Apennine standards but dramatic by Pugliese coastal standards — the plateau edge gives views over the Tavoliere plain to the north and the Murge valley to the south, with the distant profiles of Matera and the Lucanian Apennines visible in the west.

💡 The Alta Murgia in spring (April–May) is covered in wildflowers — orchids, irises, and a range of endemic species specific to the limestone grassland. Botanists and nature photographers specifically visit at this time.

🍞 What to Eat in Altamura — The Bread Comes First

Pane di Altamura DOP — The Finest Bread in Italy

Pane di Altamura holds a DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) designation from the European Union — the highest quality certification available for food products, guaranteeing that the bread can only be produced in the Altamura area using specific traditional methods.

The bread is made from four ingredients: durum wheat semolina grown in the surrounding plateau, water, salt, and natural yeast. The semolina — from the ancient Appulo, Arcangelo, Duilio, and Simeto durum wheat varieties — gives the bread its characteristic golden colour, dense crumb, and distinctive flavour. The dough is left to rise naturally for several hours, then baked in wood-fired stone ovens heated with local hardwood.

The result is a bread of extraordinary character. The crust is thick, slightly charred, and crackling-crisp. The crumb is dense and golden-yellow, with a chewiness that comes from the semolina’s gluten structure. The flavour is nutty, slightly sour from the natural fermentation, and more complex than any industrially produced bread. It stays fresh for up to a week — historically essential for shepherds and farmers on the plateau.

The best way to eat it: buy a warm loaf directly from a panificio in the historic centre, tear it open while it’s still steaming, pour the best local olive oil you can find directly onto the crumb, and add nothing else. This combination — warm Pane di Altamura and local olive oil — is one of the definitive food experiences of Puglia.

💡 Buy directly from a wood-fired bakery rather than a supermarket or food shop. The difference between Pane di Altamura bought warm from the oven that baked it and the same bread bought cold from a shelf is the difference between a living tradition and a souvenir.

The Festa del Pane — Altamura’s Annual Bread Celebration

Every year, typically in autumn, Altamura stages the Festa del Pane — a celebration of the bread-making tradition with processions, music, demonstrations of traditional baking techniques, and extensive opportunities to taste and buy from local producers. The festival draws visitors from across Puglia and is one of the most specifically local food events in the province.

Beyond the Bread

Braciola di Altamura — slow-cooked rolled beef in tomato ragù, made with the local meat and the local bread for mopping — is the Sunday dish of the town.

Local lamb from the Alta Murgia plateau appears on traditional menus year-round — grass-fed on plateau vegetation, smaller and more flavourful than the commercial equivalents.

Gravina DOC white wine from the adjacent municipality (10km away) is the natural accompaniment to everything on the table. The DOC covers white wines from Greco and Malvasia grapes grown in the plateau vineyards — crisp, mineral, and locally available at modest prices.

🚗 How to Get to Altamura

By Car

• From Bari airport: approximately 50km via the SS96 — around 50 minutes
• From Bari city: approximately 45km — around 45 minutes
• From Matera: approximately 20km — around 20 minutes via the SS99
• From Gravina in Puglia: approximately 10km — around 12 minutes
• From Castel del Monte: approximately 60km — around 1 hour

By Train — The FAL Connection

Ferrovie Appulo Lucane (FAL) operates a regional rail line connecting Bari with Matera via Altamura. From Bari the journey takes approximately 1 hour 10 minutes. From Matera approximately 20 minutes. The Altamura station is a short walk from the historic centre.

This is the same line that connects Gravina in Puglia — combining Altamura, Gravina, and Matera in a single train-based itinerary without a car is entirely feasible.

📍 Nearby Places Worth Visiting

Matera (20km, Basilicata) — The UNESCO cave city. The Altamura Man and the Matera Sassi together offer the two most extraordinary prehistoric and early human timelines in the immediate area. Combining both in a single day is possible; combining both in a single itinerary with an overnight stay is better.

Gravina in Puglia (10km) — The town with the James Bond bridge, the underground city, and the Gravina DOC wine. A natural half-day from Altamura — the two towns are 12 minutes apart and the FAL train connects them.

Castel del Monte (60km) — Frederick II’s octagonal UNESCO castle. The same emperor who commissioned the Altamura Cathedral in 1232 built his most architecturally extraordinary monument 60km north. Combining both Frederick II buildings in a day is one of the better historical itineraries in northern Puglia.

Bari (45km) — Puglia’s capital and the most practical base for a day trip to Altamura. The FAL train connects them in just over an hour.

Alta Murgia National Park — The landscape surrounding Altamura, accessible on foot or by car from the edge of the historic centre. Best in April and May for the wildflower season.

✍️ Conclusion: More Than Just Bread

The bread is extraordinary and worth the journey on its own terms. But arriving in Altamura knowing that a 130,000-year-old Neanderthal is still in his cave 8 kilometres away, that a 13th-century cathedral was commissioned by the same ruler who built Castel del Monte and fascinated Arab mathematicians and wrote treatises on falconry, and that the durum wheat growing in the plateau around the town has been feeding this settlement for over a thousand years — changes the experience from a provincial Italian city into something considerably more layered.

Altamura, Puglia is not a typical tourist destination. It doesn’t have the visual drama of Matera or the baroque spectacle of Lecce. What it has is depth — geological depth in the cave where the Neanderthal waits, historical depth in the cathedral Frederick II ordered built, culinary depth in the bread that has been coming out of wood-fired ovens here for longer than most European cities have existed.

Explore more of the Alta Murgia area on beautifulpuglia.com: Gravina in Puglia, Matera, Castel del Monte, Bari, and the Northern Puglia itinerary.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions