Montecorvino Pugliano

In this comune there is no place at all called Montecorvino. The name is the mountain's, and the toponym proper belongs to the neighbouring comune, Montecorvino Rovella; here the villages are called Pugliano, Santa Tecla, Gallara, Torello, San Vito, and the town hall stands at Santa Tecla. The separation is documented: on 25 January 1820, by royal decree, Montecorvino was divided into two departments, Rovella and Pugliano. Then the comune lost the plain as well. The reclamation of the agro picentino, begun already under the Bourbons, made the low lands good, and many families moved down to the plain; as early as 1806 a first movement had been born to make Pontecagnano Faiano an autonomous comune, and the growth of the plain together with the distance from the town hall did the rest: the royal decree of 18 June 1911 established the birth of Pontecagnano Faiano. To Montecorvino Pugliano remained Santa Tecla, Pugliano, Gallara, Torello, Pagliarone and San Vito.

The name, however, went on administering: from 1811 to 1860 the comune was part of the circondario of Montecorvino, in the district of Salerno of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and from 1860 to 1927 of the mandamento of Montecorvino, in the circondario of Salerno — that is, of a district named after a place that is not a village. Here, after all, geography counts more than names: the mountain hamlets stand on monte Corvino, those of the plain, Bivio Pratole and Pagliarone, have grown thanks to the state road eighteen, and in between there are olives and vines everywhere. There is sulphurous water, with a fountain and what remains of a Bourbon thermal station; at San Vito the church is of Lombard origin and keeps an early medieval fresco in the apse; and in the comunal territory lies the Salerno War Cemetery. The cooking, finally, is of meat — the cavatelli alla puglianese — but the borage fritters are not lacking either, which here are called pizzel'e vrrain.