What remains of Brienza's oldest church is its outline. It lies below the inhabited town, towards the river, and the walls still legible on the ground trace the building dedicated to San Martino, raised at the turn of the 8th and 9th centuries and held to be the first place of worship of Burgentia Fidelis, the fortified settlement the town grew out of. It was one of Brienza's six parishes, along with Santa Maria Assunta, Santa Elisabetta, San Zaccaria, San Michele dei Greci and the Santissima Annunziata. The quarter around it was the oldest part of town, the 7th-century one: it was abandoned after the earthquake of 1857 and never lived in again.
What to see
There is no interior to visit, there is a ground plan. The circuit of walls gives you the size of the church and little else, and that is exactly the reason to come: the castle and the churches in the centre were enlarged, reworked and restored over the centuries, while here nobody rebuilt anything. All around, along lanes now almost erased, shreds of wall survive from the other lost quarters: Torricella, San Sebastiano, Via Nuova, San Nicola, Santa Elisabetta.
A short way off, above the meeting of the two streams, the Pergola and the Fiumicello, stands the watchtower the locals call Trucedda: it marks the end of the wall circuit that climbs the hill to the round tower of the castle, to the north. The low tower over the water and the round one at the top are the two ends of a single defensive system.
Visiting
You come at it from the slope opposite the inhabited town, entering through the Portella, the gate still visible in the castle's wall circuit. The place is an open-air ruin: no custodian, no opening hours, and paths that have largely disappeared. Closed shoes, care after rain, and one rule: pick out the perimeter of the church first and the stretches of quarter wall afterwards, or everything looks like the same stone.
Our editors' tip
Before climbing back up, look for the porta della Torricella, the postern beside the lookout tower that hangs over the rocky spur above the Fiumicello: it leads into the San Michele dei Greci quarter and lets you return to town without retracing your steps.