Museo dell’Olio

A tribute to an economic practice that has profoundly influenced the customs and culture of the evocative Piana degli Ulivi Monumentali. The Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Olive Oil Production stands as both evidence and memory of the long-standing tradition that has made (and continues to make) Puglia one of the leading regions in the olive oil industry for centuries. In this part of southern Italy, at the heart of the Mediterranean, olive oil has “shaped” the landscape, the rock, and even human life.

The hypogeum oil mill is located within the scenic Agricultural Park of Monumental Olive Trees, a vast expanse of centuries-old olive trees with extraordinary forms, listed in the National Register of Historic Rural Landscapes and a candidate for UNESCO heritage status.

The entire area is crisscrossed by roads and pathways that have witnessed pilgrimages, trade exchanges, and various religious faiths, customs, and traditions which have intertwined over the centuries. Starting from the city of Egnazia, the ancient gateway to the Fasano territory, along the Via Traiana, one will encounter ravines, rock parks, religious crypts, mediterranean scrubland, and hundreds of thousands of monumental olive trees—true natural sculptures, made unique and majestic by the combined work of man and time.

Now known as Masseria Savoia, after the surname of its current owners, the estate has undergone a series of name changes that reflect its origins and uniqueness. It was first called “La Cappella” (The Chapel), then “Fiezzo d’Aglio” (Aroma of Garlic); the first name reveals its origins as a place of worship and religious ritual, and the latter was due to the abundant presence of wild garlic growing on its rocky soils.

A particularly remarkable feature within the masseria complex, which spans over 60 hectares, is the Hypogeum Oil Mill. Covering an area of approximately 290 square meters, it embodies the social and cultural evolution that combined religious rituals, daily life, and olive oil production for over a thousand years. Inside, visitors can admire votive engravings, apotropaic masks (human faces carved at the corners of the hypogeum, serving as protectors), storage rooms for olives, underground cisterns, Calabrian and Genoese-style presses, millstones, a stable, and various tools used for agricultural work.

A recent museum restoration project has made this ancient world accessible once again, allowing an international audience to visit and appreciate its historical and cultural significance.