Altavilla bears the surname of those who built it: the Normans of Hauteville, the house of Robert Guiscard, who around 1080 raised it on a hill of olive trees, triangular in plan, with three gates and a castle at the top. In 1246, for taking part in the barons' conspiracy against Frederick the Second, it was razed to the ground; the breach opened in the walls is still called muro rutto, broken wall. The town was rebuilt on a quadrangular plan, with one gate more. Silentina, because it lies between the rivers Sele and Alento, was added in 1862, to tell it apart from the other five Altavilla in Italy.
In 1799 Altavilla proclaimed the republic and planted the tree of liberty; from nearby Eboli came the Sanfedisti with a field gun. The people of Altavilla, little used to weapons, took the statue of Saint Anthony, dressed it as a soldier with sabre, cartridge pouch and two-cornered hat, and set it in the middle of the square. The Sanfedist commander mocked it and fired: his cannon broke into thirteen pieces. Ever since, every 13 June, the statue of the saint goes from house to house.
Carciofo di Paestum · Pizza Napoletana · Caprese
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Next up: Saint Giles the Abbot, patron of the town of the pilgrim statue, Wednesday 1 September
Nearest airport: Napoli Capodichino, 81 km away
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📅 Every year, on 1 September; on 13 June the statue of Saint Anthony visits the town's houses
Altavilla Silentina celebrates Saint Giles the Abbot on 1 September. On 13 June, the liturgical feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua, the saint's statue visits the town's families house by house.
A large, round artichoke head, the Romanesco type: Carciofo di Paestum, grown in the Sele plain since the 1920s, has held IGP status since 2004.
Read more →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 Altavilla Silentina, but an easy day trip away.
