Viggianello – Madonna del Pollino

This is a very beautiful stage that offers sweeping views and continuous changes of scenery. In the first part, the path climbs away from the Mercure valley and enters the smaller Frido Valley. In the process, you see countless hamlets scattered across the cultivated fields, meadows and small wooded areas that surround the residential centre. Even though you have to walk along a provincial road, the traffic is almost non-existent so you can walk without any worries. Once you arrive in Colle Lacco, above the few houses in the hamlet of Torno di Viggianello, another scenario opens up dominated by mountains covered in lush nature. A fan shaped range of mountains surrounds the Frido valley. Here, too, there are small hamlets with friendly residents who are always ready to chat with walkers. Finally, the climb to the Sanctuary is a bit more demanding: walking along a country lane and, where possible, using the ancient pilgrims’ mule track.

San Severino Lucano. A stretch of the “pilgrim’s path” as it crosses the hamlet of Frido

Area

Lucania

Difficulty

E – Also accessible with MBT

Distance

18,8 km

Travel time

5 hours

Start

Viggianello – Piazza Umberto I

Finish

Santuario di Madonna del Pollino

Difference in altitude

↑ 862m ↓ 162m

Accessible

All year round. Except the stretch that leads to the Sanctuary of Madonna di Pollino, open from May to December

Springs and fountainheads with waypoint

No

River/fiumare crossing (waypoint)

No

Route

Starting from Umberto I square in Viggianello, walk up the state road and take the steps in via San Biase. You pass in front of Palazzo Caporale, the birthplace of Doctor Vincenzo (1878-1967), author of research on cancer, botanist and a great authority on the therapeutic effects of plants.
Continue climbing, you reach via Marconi and from here continue to the clearing in front of the castle of the Sanseverino di Bisignano princes. The gorge you see in front of the castle is impressive, very deep, and heavily wooded. Continue and descend onto Via Marconi to the small square where you see a little chapel (church of the Assumption), built by the Sanseverino princes. It has a rectangular layout with a classic facade, inside it houses a fresco of the Annunciation dating back to the sixteenth century.
Continuing along via San Francesco you reach the provincial road where, taking the Park path no. 912, a series of majestic Turkey oaks come into view a few meters ahead. Carry on until you come out onto the provincial road again. From here, turning left, continue on the asphalted road with its hairpin bends and expansive views both of Viggianello, where you can see the Castle in all its majesty, and the whole Mercure valley with the area’s many other hamlets (all twenty-two of them!), up to the small hamlet of Torno, located at the head of the Fosso Trinità. Once in Torno, leave the provincial road to take the small road that opens on the right immediately after the bar. Then continue upwards and, in a few minutes of steep climb, you will reach a stretch without trees where the Serra Alberigo appears on the left: a textbook example of geomorphology of the structure of the mountain. From this point you are soon at Colle Lacco where the landscape changes: you leave the Mercure valley behind and enter the Frido valley. There are fewer houses, a lot more woods, and in the distance the village of San Severino Lucano. Going downhill, continuing straight on towards the crossroads and various hamlets. First Varco, then Mezzana. Finally, you arrive at the Jannarelli Mill, which is a place of ancient history. According to some sources, in the second half of the nineteenth century a Captain Gennaro Jannarelli of the Mobile Guard, bought this structure, which was built by the Sanseverinos in 1745, expanding it and also adding a hydraulic sawmill and a fulling mill. With the advent of new technologies, the plant declined. However, after several years of neglect it has been renovated and transformed into a four-star restaurant.
A few metres past the entrance to the mill, take the steps on the right that lead to the hamlet of Frido and then to Albanete. This is part of the old mule track used by pilgrims going to the Sanctuary.
Immediately after Palafrido, the path is overgrown with brambles and dense vegetation, so you have to leave it and use the country lane that leads to Terranova. Continue along this road to the intersection identifiable by the Impieso fountain, here you have to turn right, and soon you enter the Jannace Gorge. This is a spectacular gorge, which is very interesting from a naturalistic point of view, as it is full of verdant white fir trees, which soar upwards. From the roundabout, continue along the asphalted road and in a short time you will reach the sanctuary of Madonna del Pollino.

Brief historical overview

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.

Iannarelli mill. Beginning of the “pilgrim’s path” towards the Sanctuary of Madonna di Pollino

The sanctuary of Madonna del Pollino is located in the hamlet of Mezzana in the town of San Severino Lucano in the province of Potenza, 1537 metres above the sea, on a rocky spur. The sanctuary is actually a small Romanesque church with three naves. Behind the church there is an annexed building used as a sacristy; next to which there is another building that serves as a dormitory for guests. On the right-hand side, one more building has some rooms for guests on the upper floor and on the ground floor a souvenir shop and a small museum that houses ex-voto souvenirs. According to legend, the history of the sanctuary began between 1725 and 1730 when the Madonna appeared to a shepherd who was taking his flock to pasture. A few days later, two women from the village went to the place where the vision had occurred to ask for mercy for a very sick family member and they found a statue of the Virgin in a small natural cave. Back in the village, they told everyone of the discovery. When they returned to their home, to their joy, they saw that their family member was perfectly healed. As a sign of thanks, the husband of one of the women had a chapel built on the site of the discovery. Even today, three times a year, celebrations are held in memory of this event. On the first Sunday of June, the devoted go up the mountain carrying the statue of the Madonna in a long procession of about twenty kilometres to the sanctuary where they arrive at sunset. Along the way the porters, who take turns carrying the statue, stop every now and then to have refreshments, dance and place the statue on small stands placed along route. The Madonna remains in the sanctuary until the second Sunday of September, when, with a procession in the opposite direction, they take the Virgin back to the Mother Church of San Severino Lucano. However, the most wonderful and intense moment takes place in the first weekend of July, when the Madonna is carried in procession towards two points at the extremities of the Sanctuary: to the north-east towards the Valley and then to the south towards the Pollino mountains. During this weekend the mountain surrounding the sacred building resounds with music to the rhythm of bagpipes, accordions and tambourines. The procession ends with a visit and prayers in the church, which is followed by large lunches. Then the encampment is dismantled, and a date is fixed for the following year. The amazing geographical position of the Sanctuary makes you want to look towards the high peaks of the Pollino and, in the distance, the extremities of Monte Sirino can also be seen.

Sanctuary of Madonna del Pollino

Map and elevation profile

Further information

Guides of reference for the stage:
Andrea Vacchiano – tel. +39 348 2745771 – mail a.vacchiano@hotmail.it
Giuseppe Cosenza – tel. +39 347 2631462 – mail: uida@viaggiarenelpollino.it – web: www.viarenelpollino.it
Pino Di Tomaso – tel. +39 349 8758417- mail: pinoditomaso@gmail.com – web: www.facebook.com/pino.tomaso
Iole Esposito – tel. +39 0973 661331; +39 388 6927934 – mail: iole.esposito24@gmail.com

Where to eat

[Civita]

Restaurant – L’antico Ulivo – tel. +39 0981 73333

Last update: 2022-07-29