The hill has changed job three times without changing shape. The Romans put a castrum on it to block the Lucanians; the Byzantines turned it into a kastrion, a fortified place that farmers actually lived in, and its remains can be seen in the Cella and Ravita quarters; the Normans raised the stronghold with its square tower.
Of the Basilian monks of the Mercurion there remain chapels cut into the rock and hermit lauras scattered across the territory. The name took five centuries to become the present one: in the bull of archbishop Alfano of 1079 it is Vineanellum, in a Greek document of 1132 it is Bigianitu, and only in 1494 does Viggianello appear. There are 3,124 residents.
chiesa dell'Assunta · chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria d'Egitto · Castello dei Principi di Sanseverino
23 places to stay · top rated: La casa di Tiziana 10.0 · Hotel Edelweiss 9.8
Next up: Saint Francis of Paola and the trees of the Pollino, Sunday 29 August
Nearest airport: Lamezia Terme, 119 km away
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📅 Every year, in the first week after Easter and on the last weekend of August
Viggianello celebrates Saint Francis of Paola with four days of tree rites: trees cut in the Pollino, dragged by oxen, and the cuccagna pole raised in the square.
chiesa dell'Assunta A chapel wanted by the Sanseverino princes; its sixteenth-century terracotta floor is gone. 
chiesa di Santa Caterina d'Alessandria d'Egitto Three mummified priests sit on a bench in the crypt, in gilded vestments 
Castello dei Principi di Sanseverino Roman castrum, Byzantine kastrion, Norman tower, at the top of Viggianello 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 Viggianello, but an easy day trip away.
