Pisciotta was born of a flight and carries the name of the town that was lost. In 915 the Saracens of Agropoli sacked and burned Bussento; those who escaped beyond the promontory of Palinuro founded a village and called it Pixoctum, «little Pyxous», after the Greek colony their town had once been. Pyxous in turn comes from the box tree, the evergreen shrub that appears in the municipal arms. The village grew again in 1464, when it took in the survivors of Molpa, destroyed in its turn.
The fief changed hands at prices the documents record: in 1554 it was sold to don Sancho Martínez de Leyva, captain general of the royal galleys, for seventeen thousand ducats, and he resold it in 1578 to Camillo Pignatelli for thirty thousand. One title, though, says more than any chronicle: Francis I of the Two Sicilies allowed Pisciotta to style itself «faithful town» because its citizens had refused to take part in the Cilento risings of 1828.
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📅 Every year, on 30 September
On 30 September Pisciotta celebrates its patron Saint Sophia; the village also venerates Saint Vitus and Saint Agnello the Abbot, and preserves the Cenotaph of Palinurus, linked to Aeneas's legendary helmsman.
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 Pisciotta, but an easy day trip away.
