Monteforte Cilento

Monteforte Cilento stands in a commanding position over the Alento valley, at the foot of Monte Chianiello, and its territory runs from the 150 metres of the valley floor to the 1319 of the summit. It began as a small Roman castrum and grew during the invasions, when people from nearby settlements that had been destroyed took refuge here: but it never stopped being what its name says, a place enclosed within a fortified perimeter.

Then history turned the other way. When, in the later Middle Ages, military and civil importance shifted to the coast, the inland villages built around castles began to empty, and Monteforte with them. The stones of the old walls were not lost: they were taken down and reused to build the churches and other buildings of the village, and between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the noble houses that can still be seen — Gorga, Fonte, Baronale, Cerulli. In 1828 the Capozzoli band, active in this area, was among the protagonists of the Cilento risings.