Pietramelara

The medieval village is laid out in a wheel around an old Lombard tower, and the walls were held by twelve towers: careful planning, made for defence and control. It was not enough. On 13 March 1496, after a fifteen-day siege, the Aragonese put the town to fire and sword: two thirds of the inhabitants died and the survivors were sold as slaves. The victors left only seven families free, and from those seven families the rebuilding on the ruins began.

Those who were left built the church of San Rocco, to thank the saint for protecting them from the plagues of war and from that sack. But they were poor, and they found a curious way of paying for it: they adopted a code that punished blasphemers with a fine in money, reducing their sentence; those who had no money offered their labour instead, and so escaped being hanged in front of the church door. The church of the Annunziata, on the other hand, is a national monument: it has an altar of onyx from Monte Maggiore and, in the dome of the apse, frescoes of the four major Prophets attributed to the school of Giorgione.