Romagnano al Monte

The name comes from a Roman farm estate, that of the Romanius family; until Italian unification the village was called simply Romagnano, and «al Monte» was added later so as not to confuse it with Romagnano Sesia, in Piedmont. The fief is a rare case of stability in a South where villages changed masters constantly: it belonged to the same lords from the thirteenth century until well into the eighteenth.

The old village stood on a ridge sheer above the gorges of the Platano, which here divides Campania from Basilicata. The earthquake of 23 November 1980 emptied it: the inhabitants were housed first in prefabs and then in a new village, built two kilometres away. The old centre was left where it was, and over the years it was also robbed: stone doorways were taken off the buildings, and from the church the marble of the altar and the stoups.