Polla

To understand Polla you have to imagine the water. During the glacial phases the Vallo di Diano was almost entirely filled by a great Pleistocene lake, and the Grotta di Polla, together with the cavities known here as the Crive, formed its outlet: from there the water slipped into the limestone massif and came out again further down, where the caves of Pertosa-Auletta are visited today. The lake is gone and in its place runs the Tanagro, which to the north cuts into the edge of the plain in the stretch called Intagliata and then narrows into the gorge of Maltempo. The town stands at 468 metres on the western rim of the valley, that is just above the level the water used to hold.

The ground here moves: Polla was the epicentre of the disastrous earthquake that struck the Vallo di Diano in 1561. For a century and a half it was also the administrative centre of the area, chief town of its circondario from 1811 to 1860 under the Bourbons and then chief town of its mandamento until 1927. And between 1940 and 1943 it was one of the Campanian municipalities that the fascist authorities designated to receive Jewish refugees in civil internment: people sent to live far from the cities, in a mountain town, under surveillance and without trial.