Information
The transhumance, regulated by the Aragonese Regia Dogana della Mena delle pecore, saw in late September the Abruzzo and Molisian shepherds traveling on foot with their flocks to the Plain of Puglia, where they remained until May.
The Tratturi were the routes used for these migrations and constituted an important crossroads for the production and the trade of cheese, milk, wool and skins, and an important point of exchange of culture between the people.
The so-called "grass road" was over 210 km long and on average 60 Neapolitan feet wide, corresponding to about 110 meters: it was therefore a large and important artery that marked the economy of northern Puglia. In fact, it dates back to the fifteenth century. the institution of the Customs of the Sheep Mena, which regulated the conditions of transhumance and the charges that the shepherds had to pay to the Kingdom to cross the sheep tracks and bring their flocks to winter in the Tavoliere delle Puglie.
The Regio Tratturo starts at the sources of the Sangro river in Abruzzo, crosses Molise and Campania, enters Puglia in the Dauni Mountains crossing the territories of Monteleone di Puglia, Anzano di Puglia, Sant'Agata di Puglia, Rocchetta Sant'Antonio and ends at Pozzo di S. Mercurio near Candela.
The stretch of sheep track that interests the Monti Dauni is now a path between "haystacks", i.e. animal shelters, historic stone farms, ancient watering holes and huge expanses of wheat.
