Until the twenty-ninth of January 1864 the village was simply Paterno; on that day the -poli was added, from the Greek polis, and the name became the city of the father. Which father is not settled: the commonest idea looks to the hermits, the patres, who by tradition took refuge here as far back as Roman times. The coat of arms is just as uncertain: an oak on three mounts, flanked by two golden letters, P and O, whose meaning nobody can state with confidence — perhaps Paternum Oppidum, the fortified town of Paterno, perhaps a formula granted by Ferdinand of Aragon when he stayed here, in 1461.
By the treaty of Ceprano of 1080 the territory passed to Robert Guiscard, and it was the Normans who built the castle; in 1139 the fief went to William, the illegitimate son of Roger Borsa. Ferdinand of Aragon gave the town an advanced defensive system at the end of the fifteenth century, and his tower stood almost intact until the early twentieth. The plague of 1656 cut the population drastically, and the devotion to the Madonna della Consolazione, whose confraternity had just been founded, survived it: the sanctuary, with its Holy Stair, is still the church of the village. On the twenty-third of November 1980 the earthquake killed four people here, injured eighteen and left four hundred and six without a home.
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📅 Every year, on 6 December, with the Paternopoli Carnival in February or March
Paternopoli celebrates Saint Nicholas on 6 December. In February or March, the Paternopoli Carnival brings allegorical floats built by young people, craftsmen and enthusiasts to the square.
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 Paternopoli, but an easy day trip away.
