The Sorgitora Spring and the Aqueduct Building

In the heart of the Lucanian Apennines National Park Val d'Agri Lagonegrese, the territory of Paterno surprises visitors with a landscape rich in water and silence, where nature expresses itself in a thousand shades of green and a dense network of springs that emerge spontaneously from the subsoil.

It is a land of clear springs, a natural oasis where the vital element par excellence creates fresh and regenerating scenarios. It was precisely this extraordinary abundance of water that led, in the 1930s, to the construction of a fascinating architectural complex in the locality of Sorgitora: the so-called Palazzo dell'Acquedotto (Aqueduct Building), an elegant rationalist-style building that was the historic headquarters of the Lucano Aqueduct, flanked by a spectacular fountain in local stone, where water still flows today from solemn lion's mouths.

The work celebrates one of the most important chapters in the development of Lucania, that of the Agri Aqueduct, an impressive hydraulic engineering project completed in the summer of 1937 by the Fratelli Del Fante company together with Civil Engineering technicians: 300 kilometres of network, 29 centres served between the provinces of Potenza and Matera, over 100,000 inhabitants reached by a daily flow of 7,300 cubic metres of water.

An infrastructure that changed the face of the region, bringing prosperity, modernity and new prospects for growth. A short distance away, the excursion to the Sorgitora spring, at an altitude of about 980 metres, offers an immersive experience of nature and geology: it can be reached via a picturesque route that winds through narrow streets and unspoilt landscapes, where sinkholes and karst phenomena carved into the limestone rocks emerge, testimony to a living and constantly changing territory.

Around the spring, there is an ecosystem rich in biodiversity, including chestnut, walnut and elder trees and wild shrubs, an ideal habitat for educational activities, for those who love to observe wildlife and for those who simply want to enjoy a relaxing break in the open air. Here, water is not just a resource: it is memory, identity and a promise for the future, enclosed in a place that harmoniously combines nature, history and human ingenuity.