In the heart of the Cilento National Park there is a ghost town where only one inhabitant lives: it is the village of Roscigno Vecchia. The history of the Cilentan town and its keeper, Giuseppe Spagnuolo, has also attracted the attention of the National Geographic cameras that decided to stop off to visit that country that has been defined as the "Pompei of the 900".
Roscigno Vecchia is today one of the most particular ghost towns thanks to its rural architecture, consisting of low stone houses, alleys and a central square, Piazza Nicotera, where the remains of the main church are still more than visible. Over the years all its inhabitants have forcibly moved to the new area because of the numerous landslides and floods that have always devastated the country.
The Certosa di San Lorenzo is a former monastery, today one of the largest monumental complexes in southern Italy, a UNESCO heritage site and one of the largest in Europe. The construction, begun at the behest of Tommaso Sanseverino in 1306, lasted until the 700. From the atrium, dominated by the large Baroque façade, we pass to the stables, workshops, pharmacy and cellars.
The church preserves the altars with the refined polychrome scagliola decorations with mother-of-pearl inserts, the 16th-18th century frescoes, the eighteenth-century majolica flooring, the carved and inlaid wooden choirs of the early sixteenth century. Magnificent the spectacle of the great cloister: started in the 600 and finished at the end of the 700, it presents two orders of arcades and 84 arches.
Along the portico there are the Carthusian quarters and at the bottom, in an octagonal tower, is the spectacular elliptical staircase. The cloister, with its 12,000 square meters, is one of the largest in the world. The Christian baptistery is one of the oldest in the whole West. built on commission of pope marcello I, from which the church and the village, marcellànium, takes its name, destroyed in the sixth century perhaps during the greek-gothic war. in the twelfth century the church was rebuilt, now dedicated to saint john the baptist.
Located in the Monti Alburni massif, the Pertosa-Auletta Caves are one of the focal geosites of the “Cilento” Geopark and have two uniqueness:
The Museum, located in the birthplace of Joe Petrosino, is the only house-museum dedicated to an exponent of forces in order. Giuseppe Petrosino was born in this house on 30 August 1860. Within these walls the young Giuseppe lived up to 13 years, when in 1873, together with his father Prospero, a tailor, and the whole family, he left for America.
This case of ordinary emigration determined the fate of Giuseppe who would later become the great, legendary Joe, America most famous policeman. It was through the visualization and reification of the new well-being that the returning emigrant demonstrated to the villagers left at home, the pride of not having left in vain. Electric light, new furniture, a watch and a gold chain, the same way of dressing become an explicit declaration of success. The museum also displays memorabilia and documents relating to the heroic activity of the policeman. All this makes the visit more suggestive by making those who go there experience the same emotions as those who lived there, stimulating values of legality and justice.
In the Valle di Diano, in Campania, there is the municipality of Atena Lucana, one of the oldest centers of the Cilento hinterland. The village in the province of Salerno offers rich architectural, landscape, historical and folkloristic testimonies that manage to enchant even couples of lovers.
Walking through the historic center means first of all admiring the Castle, which dominates the maze below made of narrow alleys, arches and small buildings made of stone. And then the many historic buildings and splendid churches.
Among these is the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built on the ruins of a Roman building, which was the feudal chapel of the Sanseverino family.
Montesano sulla Marcellana, with the houses leaning against the slopes of a hill included in the Apennine Chain of La Maddalena, dominates the entire valley below. From the environmental point of view, the true richness of the territory, it is certainly the thermal complex, immersed in greenery and refreshed by crystalline springs. Of these, one in particular, with mineral properties, is placed on the national and international market by the "Sorgenti Santo Stefano" plant.
The ancient village with its perched houses is very suggestive. Among the holy places, instead, to mention the abbey of Cadossa, presumably dating back to the year one thousand, the church and the former Capuchin convent (XVI century), the Church of St. Andrea (XIV century), the Church of Santa Maria di Loreto in Arenabianca (XVIIth century), the Chapel of St. Antonio Abate (XVIIth century) and more recently the Church of the Assunta. Finally the Church of Sant’Anna, recently rebuilt in perfect Gothic style.
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