Maratea

Maratea is the only access that Basilicata has to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Its origins date back to the Bronze Age. This village was built on the mountainside of the San Biagio Mountain, overlooking the Policastro Gulf. This Gulf is bordered by some very beautiful beaches. On the side of this village which overlooks the shore, there is a Belvedere with a Statue of the Redentore, by Bruno Innocenti. In the village there are 44 churches. Along the shore there are several Sighting Towers built up in the XVI century. In the area called ‘Marina’ the evocative Maratea Caves can be found. Worth visiting are the old centre, on a higher position, and the Small Square. The economy of Maratea is mostly based on summer tourism. The beautiful accommodations welcome every year not only Italian tourists, but also tourists from abroad. Many events are organised during the summer, such as Marajazz, Marateatro, Maratea Musica Festival and the ‘Caseus premium’.

Matera and its Hill: The Calanchi

The ‘calanchi’ characterise the rough landscape of south-eastern Basilicata, surrounded by the Sauro, the Agri and the Basento valleys. In this part of the region, it is possible to notice parallel or fan-shaped furrows, created by surface water erosion on clayey slopes, called ‘calanchi’ and perfectly described in Christ stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi. The land in this area is bare and rich in white clay, steep and characterised by precipices and valleys excavated by water erosion. A regional park is being established to protect and preserve the natural and landscape characteristics of the area. It will include the towns of Aliano, Stigliano and Gorgoglione in the Matera area and the towns of Armento, Corleto Perticara, Gallicchio, Guardia Perticara, Missanello and S. Martino d'Agri in the Potenza area.

Parks and Protected Areas: Lucanian Dolomites

The beautiful ‘Dolomiti Lucane’ are characterised by high peaks with odd shapes that suggested imaginative names, such as the eagle, the anvil, the big mother, the owl. They are part of a mountain complex that dates back to 15 million years ago. The highest mountains are those of the Costa di San Martino, called ‘Piccole Dolomiti’, because they reproduce the sharpness and the characteristics of the famous ‘Pule Trentine’. Very beautiful are also the peaks of the Murge di Castelmezzano and those of the Carrozze Mountain. The Rio di Capperino Stream is very evocative: it has hollowed a deep gorge that divides the ‘Murge di Castelmezzano’ from the ‘Costa di S.Martino’. In the most inaccessible ravines of the Dolomiti Lucane several species of birds nest, amongst them kites, kestrels and peregrine falcons. In spite of the bare appearance, the peaks offer interesting vegetation that includes red valerian and honesty. At the back of the Dolomiti Lucane there are the evocative villages of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa.

Potenza, Vulture and Melfi Area: The Vulture Mountain

The Vulture Mountain (1,326 m) has a volcanic origin and started forming 800,000 years ago, when the first explosions took place. The lava bursting out of the several craters settled on the edges, slowly taking the morphology of the land. Vulture is now an extinguished volcano, showing the typical shape of a truncated cone and is covered by rich vegetation, which grows luxuriant because of the fertile soil. The peculiarities of this territory have made it a protected area. Apart from having great landscape beauties it hosts the ‘Brahmea’ an extinguishing nocturnal butterfly picked out since 1961. The Oriented Natural Reserve Grotticella was instituted in 1971 to protect the environmental and animal heritage of this area, which is also very important for its forests, characterised by trees typical of South-Eastern Europe.