The town was born of a vow: duke Venceslao Sanseverino had promised San Nicola his son's recovery, and in 1427 he allowed the Carthusians to gather vassals inside the fiefs he had given them. Those who came called the place Villa Franca, a town free of taxes; then, somehow, Villafranca turned into Francavilla.
The charterhouse of San Nicola, founded in 1395, was the third in the Kingdom of Naples after Padula and Serra San Bruno; Murat's troops destroyed it, and today its ruined walls are what is left. From the time when the Sinni was navigable there survives a privilege of Frederick II, who in 1232 granted the monks a boat able to carry ten horses. There are 4,282 residents.
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📅 Every year, on 10 August
Francavilla in Sinni celebrates Saint Felix and Saint Polycarp on 10 August, with the parish church dedicated to them, restored in 1957; the 19th-century sanctuary of Our Lady of Pompeii, instead, is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of August.
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 Francavilla in Sinni, but an easy day trip away.
