The historical center of Ostuni is one of the most beautiful in Italy and it is known all over the world for its most original architecture. Its particular geographic position has allowed, better or worse, of being the strategic objective of the many people who have invaded and dominated the city leaving the mark of their passage in the course of the centuries. From a certain distance the "Earth", so is also called the fortified city, appears uniform in its geometric lines, giving the impression of a cone mounted among the hills on which insists the entire city. Reflecting on it, this linearity of the shapes isn’t so obvious: the houses often are overlapped, almost interlaced, forming architectonic volumes that makes historical center still more evocative. The apparently untidy piling up of the rooms, has given to the old city, the conformation of a real maze, but in which is pleasant pretending to get lost. For its conformation, in the "Earth" is impossible to lose completely the guideline. In fact if you go up, you reach the top of the hill where the cathedral rises. Square of the Freedom, whose symbol is the column of Sant’Oronzo, protector of the city with San Biagio, belongs to the historical center. The obelisk was erected in the second half of eighteenth century (1771), with the money of the ostunesi, to thank the protector that once again averted an epidemic. The statue of the Saint, with its approximately 21 meters height, seems turned to bless the historical center. The municipal palace has been until the 19th century, convent of the Francescani. Really, it has endured vary readjusting works from the beginning of its construction, happened in 1304. Contiguous to the town hall, rises the church dedicated to S. Francesco of Assisi. The lusty size of the two structures in their totality, above all if seen from the high, looks like an impressing fortification.
