Acerenza

the Cathedral Town

The Name

The Oscans, who were among the first Lucanian tribes, occupied the uplands of Basilicata, including the place that they called “Akere,” later “Acherutia”.

The Latin poet Horace mentioned it as “Acherontia”, bringing the name back to its true origin and its true meaning of “high place”.

History

• 318 BC: Acerenza is conquered by the Romans, who build a temple there dedicated to Hercules Acheruntine.

• 799: Bishop Leo II builds a church there worthy of keeping the remains of the martyr saint Canio (died in 395).

• 1061: Robert Guiscard recaptures the fortress for the Normans: two years earlier, during the Council of Melfi, after his excommunication had been revoked he swore fidelity to the Church of Rome. The terms of the agreement had been drawn up by Godano, monk of Cluny, bishop of Acerenza. Guiscard is very grateful and orders the building of a larger and more beautiful church. Construction work begins, but the cathedral will bear a different signature. To make it as spectacularly beautiful as it is today, reigning over the valleys, the symbol of strength, was the dream of Arnaldo, the abbot of Cluny, named Archbishop in 1067. Arnaldo hired French architects and local masons, wanting it to be in the style of the abbey he had left but with the touch of local artists. He completed his dream in 1080, consecrating the beautiful church to Santa Maria Assunta and to San Canio.

• 13th-15th cent.: given in fief to various baronial dynasties, Acerenza, which had been under the Hohenstaufens and the Anjevins, becomes a state town again under the Aragonese, removed from the fighting of the barons by the will of King Ferdinand. Destroyed by an earthquake in 1456, it is immediately rebuilt and in 1479 passes under the noble Ferrillo family, and then again under the influence of private families whose selfish interests bring it to ruin.

An eagle’s nest in sandstone, overlooking the countryside of the distant south

Perched on a cliff of tuff more than 800 meters above sea level, between the broad Bradano river valley and the Fiumarella stream, it is truly the caelsae nidum Acherontiae, the “eagle’s nest of Acerenza” described by the Latin poet Horace, born in nearby Venosa.

The layout of the town is that of the typical medieval walled village. To those arriving from Puglie, Acerenza shows its northeastern side in all its imposing compactness, highlighting the rear complex of the Cathedral, harmonizing with the urban fabric and with the uniform building materials (local sandstone) and color of the façades and roofs. The imposing 11th-century Cathedral, in a Romanesque-Cluniacensian style and dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Canio, towers above the rest of the village skyline.

The wonderful portal, where humans and animals are monstrously intertwined, is pure Romanesque. During the Baroque the cathedral was covered with stuccoes, which radically changed its spirit and atmosphere; the work done in the 1950s restored it to its original appearance. To understand it fully, one must walk around it, studying the old stone walls, the volumes of the apses and turrets, searching for its thousand small secrets before entering, if possible at sunset, when the rays of the sun pass through the rose window and an intense beam of light falls on the altar. And truly, by going around it through the narrow streets and the terraces with beautiful views of the gentle hills, the Cathedral unveils its first treasures: set here and there among the millenary stones are marbles from Roman times, figures carved into tombstones worn by time, and Greek columns.

Every detail is precious: the ancient holy water stoups, the ape heads at the base of the columns, the frescoes (including an evocative St. Margaret and the Dragon), and the bas-reliefs (the satyr playing a pipe).

The Ferrillo coat of arms, repeated one hundred times in frescoes and on tiles, is also on the large sarcophagus behind the altar: the “Coffin of St. Canio.” In the early 1500s, Giacomo Alfonso Ferrillo, the “archeologist count,” and his beautiful Slav wife, princess Maria Balsa, called Pietro di Muro Lucano to the palace and commissioned him to build a small crypt below the presbytery, and hired Giovanni Todisco to fresco it. The result is a small chest of treasures, a masterpiece of Renaissance art that blossomed here in the distant south, created by local artists of rare sensitivity.

Leaving the cathedral, after admiring the 16th-century former court building, which stands out for its beautiful Mediterranean romanella, one may stroll through the tiny streets of the historic center and linger before the impressive 18th-century aristocratic residences, with their stone doorways, embellished with simple sculptures or the coats of arms of venerable Acerenza families.

Facing Largo Gianturco is the old Curia building, which occupies part of the old Lombard-Norman-Suevian castle, partially rebuilt in the 1950s. Near the San Canio gate is the 18th-century Palazzo Gala, with a romanella cornice and portals in carved stone. Opposite stands the noble San Vincenzo chapel, also from the 18th century, with a stucco-decorated cross vault.

Local Products

In Acerenza, enjoying a glass of Aglianico is a must. A full-bodied red wine for medium to long aging, it has a ruby red color with garnet overtones, and a delicate bouquet of berries, with hints of vanilla and wood, if aged in barriques, or of leather and tar if aged for a long time. The flavor is dry and harmonious, and tends to become velvety with aging.

Other treats from the area include the typical sausage and Acerenza headcheese (the meat is still cut “with a knife”), the durum wheat bread, and an excellent extra virgin olive oil.

Local dishes

Standouts among the traditional pasta dishes are the maccaroun a desct (handmade pasta with a meat sauce or combined with legumes) and the z’zridd (small-sized pasta with beans or lentils).

Lagana chiappout is a sweet made with lagane (pasta made by hand using durum wheat flour) and spiced with cinnamon, walnuts, and almonds, and flavored at the end with cooked wine.