Rotonda – Viggianello

An impressive stage crossing the Lucanian countryside. Rural, agricultural and forest landscapes: a unique environment transformed by man but in harmony with nature.

Source of the Mercure River

Area

Lucania

Difficulty

E – Also accessible with MBT

Distance

10,10 km

Travel time

4 hours

Start

Rotonda – Piazza Vittorio Emanuele III

Finish

Viggianello

Difference in altitude

↑ 212m ↓ 205m

Accessible

All year round

Springs and fountainheads with waypoint

Mercure spring

River/fiumare crossing (waypoint)

No

Route

The stage starts from the main square in Rotonda, going south along Corso Garibaldi. You start to climb and, after passing the town stadium, you reach the Monumental Complex of Santa Maria della Consolazione. This large structure, in which the Pollino National Park Authority is based, incorporates the Church of the Consolation: built – as Father Serafino Montorio writes – “on a rounded hill, in a way that, with its gentle slope, it extends into the plain. The sun can be seen on every side and with its bright rays it makes the air joyful and pleasing. The area is very fertile, the fruit produced is delicious, and everything else necessary for humans to live is very abundant. This means that there is no envy of neighbouring areas as it enjoys all those things, which Mother Nature knows how to dispense, and in particular it has springs, whose water is not only clear and crystalline, but also very cold “. The Sanctuary of the Consolation was built by demolishing the pre-existing Greek Church of Cassanito, which was reduced to ruins by Robert the Guiscard to realise the dream of Latinising the South, liquidating forever the Greek-Byzantine monasticism and its foundations. Continuing, once you have passed the Park Authority car park, take the first road on the left and proceed, along the continuous ups and downs, until the junction with the Pollino provincial road. Continue on this road up to the start of Viale dell’Unità d’Italia. But first, if you want to, you can walk about two hundred metres in the direction of Rotonda to take the small road on the right that leads to the Mercure spring: a real oasis for nature lovers. From here you go back the way you came. At the junction, take the small road on the left and follow it all the way to the cemetery. At the first bend, the small town of Viggianello appears, perched on the hill with the bell tower of the Mother Church clearly visible, while at the top, the battlements of the Sanseverino castle stand out.

Brief historical overview

The Castrum Rotonde is mentioned for the first time in 1076 regarding a dispute between Duke Ruggero and the Abbot of Cava. Another document that speaks of Rotonda is found in the deeds of donations drawn up by the feudal Lord William of Naples in favour of the monastery of Sant’Elia di Carbone. The construction of the castle in the fifteenth century, on what was probably the remains of an old watchtower, testifies to the importance of the place.Rotonda has a beautiful historic centre full of aristocratic palaces that bear the signs of Spanish influence and the precise and sophisticated work by the numerous local stonecutters who decorated the palaces with portals, gargoyles and fountains. Giuseppe Garibaldi was hosted in one of these buildings in 1860. Rotonda is famous for the Fir Festival. This annual festival is celebrated from 9th to 13th June on the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua in memory of one of his journeys when the great saint found himself passing through the woods of Rotonda. Tired and exhausted, he stopped to rest at the foot of a fir tree on the Marolo plateau on the edge of a ravine. It is said that, at that same moment, a shepherd tripped up and while plummeting towards the bottom of the slope, he turned to the saint who saved him. In reality, the fir festival, linked to the cult of trees, is much older and takes place in several towns in Basilicata. The legend ‘Christianises’ the feast by linking the commemoration of the Saint to the rite that symbolises man’s revenge over the adversity of nature and the hope for optimal conditions for the new year, full of harvests and better living conditions. Rotonda is also home to the Pollino Naturalistic Museum where the remains of an “Elephas antiquus italicus” are preserved. This animal lived in the middle-upper Pleistocene era and was 4 metres tall and 6 metres long. The animal probably found its death sliding down the very steep bank of the Mercure lake, fracturing its skull, losing a fang and breaking its neck. Finally, the geographical position of Rotonda, invites a hiker to walk along the ancient mill road that leads to Fosso Paraturo: an impressive gorge where the turbulent water of the canal continues its course, making a series of jumps between well-smoothed rocks that show all its force.

Viggianello. The historic centre with the bell tower of the Mother Church.

Viggianello is a town in Basilicata, on the border with Calabria. It was founded by the Romans, perhaps as a Castrum, on the Via Popilia and today has just under three thousand inhabitants. According to legend – explains Maddalena Palazzo – a barbarian queen passing by on the banks of the Mercure, stopped to quench her thirst with the river water. While doing this she lost her wedding ring. She ordered her faithful servants to search everywhere on the river bottom, when one of her servants caught sight of the ring in the water, she burst out in an irrepressible cry of joy: “I see the ring” (Vidi anello). The queen was thus happily able to resume her journey, but not before having given the name to this place “Vidianello”. Some sources date the construction of the first houses with the arrival of the Basilian monks around the ninth century. Like many other southern towns, the region was inhabited by Lombards and Byzantines who changed the Roman Castrum into a fortified place (Kastrion) by farmers. The arrival of the Normans first and the Swabians later changed the architectural structure of this town. The former built a square-shaped stronghold that the latter turned into a manor, where Emperor Frederick II would live several times. Subsequently, Viggianello experienced a relatively quiet phase with the Sanseverinos di Bisignano, which lasted until it passed to the Bozzutos, the most greedy family of the Aragonese lineage. Viggianello, like all the villages in the Valley, experienced the vicissitudes of various historical events and only with the subversion of feudalism did it acquire a certain well-being. This, however, did not last long since the sad events of banditry and its repression plunged the entire community into poverty.

Viggianello. Entrance of Sanseverino castle

Map and elevation profile

Further information

Guides of reference for the stage:
Adalberto Corraro – tel. +39 0973 665033; +39 349 2176398 – mail: info@infopollino.com – web: www.infopollino.com
Luigi Poerio – tel. +39 327 0139522 – mail: gigipoerio@gmail.com
Rita Tedesco – tel. +39 0973 664247; +39 368 3577657

Where to eat

[Viggianello]

Farmhouse – Masseria Campolerose – +39 335 1712931 – mail: agri@masseriacampolerose.it – web: www.masseriacampolerose.it
Pub – Happy Our – tel. +39 0973664016
Restaurant – Castello dei Principi Sanseverino –  tel. 350 0324338 – mail: info@ilcastellodeiprincipi.com –
web: www.ilcastellodeiprincipi.com
Restaurant – Locanda San Francesco – tel. 0973 664384-5 – mail:  info@locandasanfrancesco.com – web: www.locandasanfrancesco.com
Ristorate-Pizzeria – Oro verde – tel. +39 338 4254071

Last update: 2022-07-29