The patrons of Brienza are Saint Cataldus, celebrated on 10 May, the Holy Crucifix, on the first Sunday of May, and Our Lady of Sorrows, on the third Sunday of September. The Sanctuary of the Holy Crucifix stands about six kilometres from the town, on the summit of the highest mountain surrounding Brienza: tradition traces its origin to 1237, though more recent studies place the votive shrine from which the church grew a few decades later. The building, with a single nave and a Romanesque bell tower at the back, holds on its high altar the ancient sculpture of the Crucifix, contemporary with its founding: every year the Crucified Christ remains in the sanctuary for three months before being brought back to the mother church precisely on the third Sunday of September, the day of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.
On the summit of the hill overlooking the town stands the Caracciolo castle, whose oldest core, a keep possibly from the Lombard era, is documented as a "castrum burgentiae" as early as 1097; enlarged by the Normans and then the Angevins, it was finally restructured by the Caracciolo marquises, who restored it again in 1783.
