Atella did not grow: it was drawn. Around 1330 the Angevins laid it out on a chessboard plan in the Vitalba valley and filled it by calling in people from Rionero, Monticchio, Lagopesole and the villages round about. For a century it worked: walls, a castle, two gates, and grain and cheese leaving for the cities of the South.
Then came the sackings and the earthquakes. The one of 1694 brought down the castle, of which only the Torre Angioina survives, and pushed many atellani to start again in Melfi. In the church of Santa Lucia the quake of 1851 uncovered a fifteenth-century fresco of the Madonna Riparatrice: Ferdinando II came to see it himself. There are 3,863 residents.
chiesa di Santa Maria da Nives · Complesso archeologico di Torre degli Embrici · sito paleolitico di Atella and 2 more
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Next up: Saint Vitus and Our Lady of the Snows, the two faces of Atella's devotion, Tuesday 15 June
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 98 km away
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📅 Every year, on 15 June and the first Monday of August
Atella celebrates Saint Vitus, patron of the town, on 15 June, and Our Lady of the Snows, titular of the mother church, on the first Monday of August with a dawn procession of the painting of the Madonna della Neve.
chiesa di Santa Maria da Nives A thirteenth-century gothic front, an eighteenth-century interior, two altarpieces. 
Complesso archeologico di Torre degli Embrici Roman baths, a basilica built on top and a water mill, one inside the other. 
sito paleolitico di Atella On the shore of a vanished lake, hunted elephants and stone flakes far too light. 
riserva regionale Lago piccolo di Monticchio In the cold season it turns rust yellow, while the Lago Grande alongside stays pale blue. 
Castello angioino Only the Torre Angioina survives of the Angevin castle; the 1694 earthquake took the rest. 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 Atella, but an easy day trip away.
