Saracena

The village, on the southern edge of the Pollino National Park, has very ancient origins with findings dating back to the Bronze Age. It was an important Enotrian city until it was occupied by the Saracens around the year 1000. The Arab settlement gave rise to today's settlement and baptized it forever, marking its urban layout and architecture. The old village is perched on the slope of a natural, green and wild valley, surrounded by centuries-old beech and chestnut forests. The streets wind narrow and winding on the slope, with a rigorous slope, and open out into small wide open spaces or get lost under small arches or in dead-end ravines. The premises of Palazzo Mastromarchi house the Andrea Alfano Art Gallery, which houses over 230 works by 20th-century Italian and foreign artists. The Museum of Sacred Art, housed in the Church of Santa Maria del Gamio, hosts two 18th-century monstrances by Salvatore Vecchio: a processional cross from the mid 17th century and a painting depicting the Madonna della Purità made between the 17th and 18th centuries. In the historical centre, the memory of ancient trades and customs, linked to rural life, is revived. A tradition rooted in a thousand years of history and magnificently embodied in a unique product such as the Moscato Passito di Saracena, a Slow Food Presidium.