Holiday apartment in Cassano delle Murge: Nature, culture and cycling routes

Cassano delle Murge combines impressive karst landscapes, a long-established local history and varied routes for active days. If you are planning a stay in a holiday apartment in Cassano delle Murge, you will find a range of starting points for your trip here: nature experiences, culture and cycling tours can each be considered a focus in their own right and combined into a varied stay.

Karst landscape and extensive woodland

The Foresta di Mercadante covers 1,300 hectares, most of which lies within the municipal boundaries of Cassano delle Murge. Cassano delle Murge is located next to this woodland area and at the same time at the entrance to the Parco Nazionale dell'Alta Murgia. The municipality is also one of the thirteen municipalities whose territories lie within the national park. This creates a broad natural setting for planning your days, where peaceful observation of nature and more active pursuits can be easily considered side by side.

The terrain around the town is characterised by karst soils. As a result, caves, lames and gorges are common in the Cassano delle Murge area. A distinctive geological feature is the Grotta di Cristo, with its numerous alabaster-like sinter formations and columns. These formations give the landscape an unmistakable character and make it clear that nature around the town consists not only of open spaces, but also of hidden and deeply incised structures.

Local history, festival tradition and cultural heritage

The historic centre of Cassano delle Murge is still surrounded by defensive walls today. The former Convento di Santa Maria degli Angeli is located near the built-up area. This building is associated with a fresco of the Madonna degli Angeli, mounted on a wall of the natural grotto on the Murgia of Cassano. The town centre, former convent and natural grotto thus provide different ways of exploring the town's history and religious character, without requiring you to focus on just one type of visit.

The MUTEC also looks far back into the past: in four chronological and thematic sections, it presents the historical development of the area over a period of more than 35 centuries, from prehistory to the modern era. Another cultural facet is the religious tradition of “Madonn' d' Basce”, celebrated every year on the third Sunday in May. If you plan your trip around this date, this recurring festival is one of the defining cultural reference points of Cassano delle Murge.

Routes for walkers and cyclists

The Cammino Federiciano is a cultural hiking route that can be travelled on foot or by bicycle. 80% of its route runs along roads with little traffic, roads closed to traffic or country roads. In addition, the “Circuito delle Querce” forms an environmentally focused cycle-tourism network comprising cycle routes of varying difficulty levels. The routes begin in the built-up area of Cassano delle Murge and branch out into the surrounding landscape.

The “Circuito delle Querce” includes the 25 km-long “La Foresta” route, which passes through the Foresta di Mercadante. The forest has facilities and services for the many day-trippers who cross it on foot or by bicycle. A 170 km-long route divided into seven stages leads, among other places, through Cassano delle Murge and the medieval towns of Bitetto, Santeramo in Colle and Altamura. The different lengths, stages and difficulty levels give you useful benchmarks for determining the preferred pace of your stay.

When choosing between a holiday apartment and a holiday home in Cassano delle Murge, you can therefore first consider how you would like to spend your days: local history and festival traditions offer different highlights from routes through woodland, karst landscapes and gorges.

More destinations for planning your trip

Minervino Murge, Macchia Di Monte, Acquaviva Delle Fonti, Ceglie Del Campo, Gravina In Puglia, Sannicandro Di Bari, Valenzano and Terlizzi

For the overarching travel overview: Bari.