In November 2003 the government picked Scanzano as the single national store for nuclear waste, in a coastal district a few metres above sea level. The town took to the streets for two weeks — the giorni di Scanzano — and the decree was withdrawn: the seismic rating of the area and its closeness to the sea both counted.
Scanzano has only been a comune since 1974: before that it was a hamlet of Montalbano, repopulated in the 1950s under the land reform. On the beach stands the Turris Hischinzanae, a sixteenth-century watchtower built against pirates and later a lighthouse for fishermen: of the six that guarded this coast it is the only one still standing properly. There are 7,171 residents now, between strawberries and beach tourism.
Pane di Matera
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Next up: Mary Most Holy Annunciate, patroness of a chapel with an Annunciation from the year 1000, Saturday 1 May
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 99 km away
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📅 Every year, on 1 May
Scanzano Jonico celebrates Mary Most Holy Annunciate on 1 May; the small chapel of the Theotokos, attached to the baronial palace built by Pedro de Toledo, holds on its portal a bas-relief of the Annunciation dating from the year 1000.
Durum wheat semolina, thick crust, shaped as a horn or a tall loaf: Pane di Matera has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2008.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Scanzano Jonico, but an easy day trip away.
