Protected Area

The Lucanian Apennines Val d'Agri Lagonegrese National Park is a vast protected area covering 69,000 hectares, divided into four main territorial areas - Alta Val d'Agri, Val Camastra, Alta Valle del Melandro and Lagonegrese - extending into the mountainous heart of Basilicata, where the Apennine range displays one of its most complex and evocative landscapes.

It includes twenty-nine municipalities (Abriola, Anzi, Armento, Brienza, Calvello, Carbone, Castelsaraceno, Gallicchio, Grumento Nova, Lagonegro, Laurenzana, Lauria, Marsico Nuovo, Marsicovetere, Moliterno, Montemurro, Nemoli, Paterno, Pignola, Rivello, San Chirico Raparo, San Martino d'Agri, Sarconi, Sasso di Castalda, Satriano di Lucania, Spinoso, Tito, Tramutola, Viggiano) distributed between the upper Val d'Agri and the Lagonegro area, a mosaic of villages, mountains, river valleys and plateaus that still retain a strong cultural identity and a deep sense of belonging.

The territory is marked by some of the highest peaks in the southern Apennines, from Monte Arioso (1,722 m) to Monte Sirino (1,907 m) to Monte Papa (2,005 m), which fan out to enclose the upper valley of the Agri River.

Established in 2007, it is located close to the Pollino and Cilento National Parks and represents a natural area of connection and continuity.

The park's logo contains an evocative and representative synthesis of the main elements of its territory: a white stork emerging from the background of a striking landscape in which the aquatic element, the mountains in the distance and, in the background, the iconic peaks of the Murgia di Sant'Oronzo stand out.

It is a territory that belongs entirely to the Apennine mountain range and encompasses an extraordinary variety of natural environments, geological formations and historical evidence, the result of a long natural evolution and a millennial relationship between man and the environment.

From a geomorphological point of view, the park's territory is an emblematic synthesis of the Lucanian Apennines, distinguished by an extraordinary variety of natural environments, shaped by altitude and geology. At higher altitudes, above 800-1000 metres, the high mountains dominate, with wide grasslands and mountain pastures, flanked by extensive beech and mixed deciduous forests; there are also rare coniferous formations, such as the Abetina di Laurenzana. These landscapes characterise areas such as Pierfaone, Volturino, Sirino and Raparo, where extra-zonal holm oak woods can also be found on the lower slopes.

Descending in altitude, one encounters the mountainous and hilly inland areas, a mosaic of hills and ridges between 400 and 1000 metres, covered with mixed oak, cerrete and hornbeam woods, interspersed with cultivated fields, pastures and small rural villages in the central Val d'Agri. In the south-eastern sector, the environment of sandy hills and conglomerate reliefs stands out with the imposing Murge di Sant'Oronzio, bold rock formations, shaped over the centuries by the action of the Agri river and atmospheric agents, which rise like spectacular pinnacles, forming a deep incision in the ground that brings to mind the great canyons overseas. Mediterranean vegetation consisting of holm oak and oak woods dominates here. Finally, along the course of the Agri River and the main streams, there is an alluvial environment consisting of fertile plains, cultivated fields and riparian woods of willows, poplars and alders, which complete one of the richest and most diverse natural landscapes in Basilicata.

Water is one of the structuring elements of the Park. The Agri River is its backbone, crossing the valley and feeding a rich and complex environmental system. In addition to surface waters, the area boasts a vast and fascinating karst heritage: caves, sinkholes, cavities and forms of surface erosion shaped by the millennial action of water on limestone rocks. The caves, often developed into sub-horizontal tunnels and enriched with spectacular concretions, in some cases preserve clear traces of human presence, linked to rock spirituality and monasticism, testifying to an ancient and profound relationship between man and the underground world. Among these, we mention the Grotta di Castel di Lepre, located at the north-western end of the protected area, in the municipality of Marsico Nuovo, and the Grotta di Sant'Angelo al Raparo, located at the base of an ancient Basilian abbey in the valley of the Raparo Massif, which also plays an extremely important role from a naturalistic point of view as it is home to one of the most important colonies of chiroptera in Europe.

This natural environment of exceptional value is home to a thousand-year-old human history.

Since prehistoric times, humans have frequented and inhabited these places, adapting to a complex environment rich in resources. First the Enotri and then the Lucani built a cultural landscape of hilltop settlements, sanctuaries, transhumance routes and agricultural areas. With the arrival of the Greeks on the coast and, later, the Romans, the Val d'Agri became a territory of passage and encounter, a crossroads of economic, cultural and religious exchanges.

Romanisation marked a profound change in the organisation of the territory, which was structured according to new administrative and productive criteria. It was in this context that Grumentum, one of the most important centres of Roman Lucania, was founded. Today, the Grumentum Archaeological Park is an essential stop within the National Park: a site of extraordinary importance, where the complete layout of an abandoned Roman city that was never resettled is still visible. The city, located on a naturally defended river terrace, preserves the clear distinction between public, religious and private spaces, offering a unified and immersive view of Roman urban planning.

The regular layout, with decumani and cardini, organises monuments, residences and public areas. The theatre, the forum, the baths, the domus decorated with refined mosaics and the amphitheatre tell the story of the political, social and cultural vitality of the city, while the nearby National Archaeological Museum of Alta Val d'Agri preserves and interprets the finds from the site and the surrounding area, providing a complete picture of the historical and environmental evolution of the valley.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the territory underwent a period of profound transformation: cities became depopulated, forests reclaimed space and man returned to live in a more direct relationship with nature. It was the time of monks, hermits and small cenobia, which contributed to the agricultural renaissance and the reorganisation of the territory. In the Middle Ages, fortified villages perched on the hills became established, and still characterise the human landscape of the Park today.

This long intertwining of nature and history has shaped the knowledge, crafts and traditions linked to sheep farming and transhumance (the latter recognised as intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2019 by UNESCO and, with Regional Law No. 54/2021, elevated to regional heritage together with sheep farming), mountain agriculture and the processing of the earth's products.

The typical products and local knowledge tell the story of an authentic territory, where time seems to pass at a different pace: examples include the long and skilful processing of wicker and reeds for the production of baskets, as well as the barrels, vats and casks obtained from the patient transformation of wood; the production of cheeses such as Canestrato di Moliterno IGP, aged in cellars according to ancient customs, or Fagioli di Sarconi IGP (Sarconi beans), beans grown and harvested by hand, or finally Salsiccia Lucanica (Lucanica sausage), a symbol of rural life dating back thousands of years, which is also embodied in the 'Nuglia di Castelsaraceno', the humblest voice in this very tale.

The Lucanian Apennines National Park is also a land that has produced and welcomed figures of great cultural importance. Montemurro, for example, is inextricably linked to Leonardo Sinisgalli, a 20th-century poet-engineer and founder of Civiltà delle Macchine, now celebrated in the Casa delle Muse, and Maria Padula, a writer and painter who delicately portrayed the feminine and social soul of Lucania, while Sasso di Castalda is the birthplace of important figures in Italian and international culture, such as the musician Mariele Ventre, founder of the Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano choir, and Rocco Petrone, NASA engineer and director of the Apollo Programme, to whom the Ponte alla Luna (Bridge to the Moon) route is dedicated.

Brienza, on the other hand, is the birthplace of the jurist, philosopher and Enlightenment politician Mario Pagano, martyr of the Neapolitan Republic in 1799, and of the doctor, psychiatrist and politician Luigi Ferrarese. It was also the birthplace of Anthony Joseph Celebrezze, who was Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and Young Zulu Kid, born Giuseppe Di Melfi, one of the strongest American boxers of his era in the flyweight category.

Also worth mentioning are artists, composers and poets such as the painters Giovanni and Girolamo Todisco from Abriola, Antonio Masini from Calvello, Antonio Cascini from Lagonegro, Vincenzo Marinelli from San Martino d'Agri, composer Vincenzo Emidio Carmine Ferroni from Tramutola, flautist Leonardo De Lorenzo from Viggiano, poets Teresina De Pierro from San Martino d'Agri and Donata Doni from Lagonegro, and many other prominent figures in science, the judiciary, literature and the arts.

Added to this rich human heritage are Pino Mango and his daughter Angelina, from Lagonegro, and Arisa, from Pignola, artists capable of bringing to the world a musical sensibility deeply rooted in their land.

A mosaic of talents that tells the story of the Lucanian Apennines as a place of inspiration, memory and creativity.

Visiting the Lucanian Apennines Val d'Agri Lagonegrese National Park means embarking on a profound journey through powerful and silent landscapes, villages rich in memory, archaeological sites immersed in nature and traditions that are still alive today.