entry
Feb 16,
2016
The
Vulture Historical
Geographical Region
Such traditional regions are not formal administrative divisions such as provinces and regions, but simply local names used for centuries. For comparison, the Campania region (of which Naples is the capital) has similar areas such as Cilento, Sannio, Irpinia, and Matese. There are many dozens of such areas throughout Italy. The name Vulture is a cognate of the English word spelled the same way; indeed, the Italian term for the bird called “vulture” in English is very similar—avvoltoio. This vulture, however —this historical area— takes its name from the extinct volcano Monte Vulture (1326 m/4350 feet) (image, right). It is 56 km (35 mi) north of the city of Potenza and is unique among large Italian volcanoes in that it is east of the Apennine mountain range, the "spine" of Italy. At the summit is a caldera: that is, a crater resulting from the collapse or explosive removal of the top of the volcano. Such an eruption is extremely powerful and the resulting crater can be many miles across. (There is one in Naples. See this link.) The Vulture caldera is not really symmetrical, but, depending on where you measure it, is about 5 km/3 mi in diameter; it was a major part of the mountain-building geology of the Apennines and formed about 800,000 years ago with the last eruption taking place 130,000 years ago. True, the entire Apennine chain is the result of tectonic plate movement; that takes many millions of years. Volcanic eruptions, however, play a big role, as well. Compared to tectonic movement, they happen in a heart-beat.
The entire area shows signs of stone-age habitation as well as of a later Indo-European Italic civilization called the Dauni in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The towns (comuni—i.e., with their own municipal administration) in the Vulture are Atella, Barile, Ginestra, Melfi, Rapolla, Ripacandida, Rionero in Vulture, Maschito, Venosa, Ruvo del Monte, Rapone, and San Fele. Most prominent historically among these is Melfi, one of the headquarters of medieval emperor, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, still marked by his castle, now the home of a national archaeological museum. It is where the Constitution of Melfi was drawn up, the foundation document of what is often called the forerunner of European nation states.
The general area contains a
number of protected nature refuges: the WWW
Wildlife reserve of Pantano di Pignola; a
protected (and very unusual) habitat for a rare
species of butterfly; the two lakes of
Monticchio within the caldera (image, left);
and the entire densely wooded area on the slopes
within the caldera and on the slopes. The
administration of these areas has provided at
least 14 marked hiking trails of varying degrees
of difficulty, including one that will take you
above the lakes to the abbey of St. Michael the
Archangel (image, above right), the
construction of which can be traced to the 8th
century AD.
- The Undergound City & More -
Shown in red: the Italo-Albanian sections of
southern Italy. Vulture is just above Potenza.
Just down
from the slopes in the immediate area, the town
of Melfi is about 5 km (3 mi) away, as is the
town of Barile with its unusual array of
"cellars", row upon row of entrances to what is
essentially an underground city (image,
right) dug into the soft limestone.
Interesting is that these are not necessarily of
recent construction and many of them are
interconnected by internal passages. To the
extent that are not natural karst grottoes, they
were dug as dwellings into the soft limestone in
the 15th century by Albanian refugees fleeing
the spread of Islam in the Balkans; they then
came to make up the so-called "Arbëresh"
communities, Italo-Albanians in southern
Italy, who to a certain extent have managed to
retain their language and ethnic identity.
Today some of these underground spaces may be
used for general agricultural storage, but
many of them are wine cellars, some with
amenities such as historical markers and
places to dine. (More on the Arbëresh at this link.)
After all, Vulture is the home
of L’Aglianico del
Vulture, Basilicata's best-known wine (you'll need a break
from lakes, monasteries, hiking and imperial
castles!). Parts of the Vulture area
are so authentically ancient looking (or at
least they were in the 1960s) that Pierpaolo
Pasolini used them (as he used nearby Matera)
for location shots to simulate Palestine at
the time of Christ for his 1964 film, The
Gospel According to Matthew. I'm
not sure you can still do that, but the L’Aglianico del Vulture is
still pretty good.
Historically, nearby Venosa has Jewish catacombs and the town was the birthplace of the Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC) (and even sponsors a nationwide Horace-translation competition!). Manfred (1232-1266), Frederick II's son and would-be successor (that didn't work out), was born there, as was everyone's favorite composer of madrigals, Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1633). (He was the one who murdered his wife and got away with it. Read all about it.) Even worse, in 493 AD Venosa was sacked by a group of Danish barbarians (c'mon, they're such nice people!) called the Heruli and whoever heard of them? They apparently gave up after a while and went back to Denmark.
to history portal to top of this page
The light
yellow area is the region (state) of
Basilicata. The red
dot is Mt. Vulture. The Vulture
historical area is all in the
general vicinity of the mountain.
The three visible bodies of water
are the Tyrrhenian sea (lower left)
where Basilicata is bounded by the
Campania region on
the west and Calabria on the south;
the Ionian Sea (lower right)
the 'sole of the boot', and the
Adriatic (upper right), with the
Puglia region of Italy in between.
The entire image is about 110 km/70
mi across.
"Extinct volcano" is
a dark, leaden phrase. Maybe it
conjures up visions of smouldering
cinders and an underground
pyroclastic zombie brooding down
there, just aching to have another
go at it. Wrong. That would be
"dormant volcano"
—Mt. Vesuvius, for example.
"Extinct" means dead, at least
geologically. In a biological
sense, however, Mt. Vulture
is anything but;
it is alive with flora, fauna,
lakes, you name it. It's as
wonderfully alive as they come. Vulture (pronounced
Vool-too-ray —accent
on the first syllable) is a traditional
geographical and historical
region in the northern part of
the province of Potenza, in the
Basilicata region. The Vulture
area is also
known as Vulture-Melfese
or Bradano. |
north There are two provinces in
Basilicata:
Potenza (left) & Matera (right). |
Such traditional regions are not formal administrative divisions such as provinces and regions, but simply local names used for centuries. For comparison, the Campania region (of which Naples is the capital) has similar areas such as Cilento, Sannio, Irpinia, and Matese. There are many dozens of such areas throughout Italy. The name Vulture is a cognate of the English word spelled the same way; indeed, the Italian term for the bird called “vulture” in English is very similar—avvoltoio. This vulture, however —this historical area— takes its name from the extinct volcano Monte Vulture (1326 m/4350 feet) (image, right). It is 56 km (35 mi) north of the city of Potenza and is unique among large Italian volcanoes in that it is east of the Apennine mountain range, the "spine" of Italy. At the summit is a caldera: that is, a crater resulting from the collapse or explosive removal of the top of the volcano. Such an eruption is extremely powerful and the resulting crater can be many miles across. (There is one in Naples. See this link.) The Vulture caldera is not really symmetrical, but, depending on where you measure it, is about 5 km/3 mi in diameter; it was a major part of the mountain-building geology of the Apennines and formed about 800,000 years ago with the last eruption taking place 130,000 years ago. True, the entire Apennine chain is the result of tectonic plate movement; that takes many millions of years. Volcanic eruptions, however, play a big role, as well. Compared to tectonic movement, they happen in a heart-beat.
The entire area shows signs of stone-age habitation as well as of a later Indo-European Italic civilization called the Dauni in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The towns (comuni—i.e., with their own municipal administration) in the Vulture are Atella, Barile, Ginestra, Melfi, Rapolla, Ripacandida, Rionero in Vulture, Maschito, Venosa, Ruvo del Monte, Rapone, and San Fele. Most prominent historically among these is Melfi, one of the headquarters of medieval emperor, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, still marked by his castle, now the home of a national archaeological museum. It is where the Constitution of Melfi was drawn up, the foundation document of what is often called the forerunner of European nation states.
The general area contains a
number of protected nature refuges: the WWW
Wildlife reserve of Pantano di Pignola; a
protected (and very unusual) habitat for a rare
species of butterfly; the two lakes of
Monticchio within the caldera (image, left);
and the entire densely wooded area on the slopes
within the caldera and on the slopes. The
administration of these areas has provided at
least 14 marked hiking trails of varying degrees
of difficulty, including one that will take you
above the lakes to the abbey of St. Michael the
Archangel (image, above right), the
construction of which can be traced to the 8th
century AD. - The Undergound City & More -
Shown in red: the Italo-Albanian sections of
southern Italy. Vulture is just above Potenza.
Just down
from the slopes in the immediate area, the town
of Melfi is about 5 km (3 mi) away, as is the
town of Barile with its unusual array of
"cellars", row upon row of entrances to what is
essentially an underground city (image,
right) dug into the soft limestone.
Interesting is that these are not necessarily of
recent construction and many of them are
interconnected by internal passages. To the
extent that are not natural karst grottoes, they
were dug as dwellings into the soft limestone in
the 15th century by Albanian refugees fleeing
the spread of Islam in the Balkans; they then
came to make up the so-called "Arbëresh"
communities, Italo-Albanians in southern
Italy, who to a certain extent have managed to
retain their language and ethnic identity.
Today some of these underground spaces may be
used for general agricultural storage, but
many of them are wine cellars, some with
amenities such as historical markers and
places to dine. (More on the Arbëresh at this link.)
After all, Vulture is the home
of L’Aglianico del
Vulture, Basilicata's best-known wine (you'll need a break
from lakes, monasteries, hiking and imperial
castles!). Parts of the Vulture area
are so authentically ancient looking (or at
least they were in the 1960s) that Pierpaolo
Pasolini used them (as he used nearby Matera)
for location shots to simulate Palestine at
the time of Christ for his 1964 film, The
Gospel According to Matthew. I'm
not sure you can still do that, but the L’Aglianico del Vulture is
still pretty good.Historically, nearby Venosa has Jewish catacombs and the town was the birthplace of the Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC) (and even sponsors a nationwide Horace-translation competition!). Manfred (1232-1266), Frederick II's son and would-be successor (that didn't work out), was born there, as was everyone's favorite composer of madrigals, Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1633). (He was the one who murdered his wife and got away with it. Read all about it.) Even worse, in 493 AD Venosa was sacked by a group of Danish barbarians (c'mon, they're such nice people!) called the Heruli and whoever heard of them? They apparently gave up after a while and went back to Denmark.
to history portal to top of this page
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