Valsinni - Valsinni

Valsinni is a city of Basilicata.

To know

Valsinni is an Italian town in the province of Matera in Basilicata. Valsinni is the place where the ancient city of Magna Graecia once stood. The ancient part of the town is narrow around the castle, it is made up of houses separated by narrow streets that climb the sides of the rocky spur on which it is built.

Geographical notes

The territory of Valsinni rises on the border with Calabria on a slight rocky relief above a bend in the Sinni river. The inhabited center is located at 250 m.s.l.m. Behind the inhabited center there is Mount Coppolo. It borders with the municipalities of Colobraro, Rotondella, Nova Siri, San Giorgio Lucano, S. Oronzo di Noepoli and with the province of Cosenza. It is 99 km from Matera and 30 km from the Ionian coast and is part of the Pollino National Park.

When to go

The best time to go to Valsinni is January 20, when the feast of San Fabiano is celebrated.

Another ideal day is May 10 when the spring festival is celebrated.

Civil ones are held simultaneously with religious rites. The center of Valsinni welcomes colorful stalls, in the evening, at the end of the party, the raffle tickets are extracted and the fireworks explode.

Background

Some remains found in the nineteenth century and dating back to the VIII-VII and IV century BC. C. attest to the origin of the city in those centuries. Until 1873 Valsinni was called Favale. In the 9th century the fiefdom belonged to Guglielmo de Favale. There are two hypotheses on the founders of Favale; some believe that it was founded by Arab pirates, or by refugees from the Lombard “civitas” of Serra Maiori who took refuge in the castle. The name Favale derives from the broad bean, precisely indicating the land used for the cultivation of broad beans.The town remained in the hands of the Morra family for 40 years, during which the tragic event of the killing of the poetess Isabella Morra by the brothers due to of the alleged relationship with the Spanish nobleman Diego Sandoval De Castro.After 1547 the Favale passed to Alessandro Capaccio who ceded it to the Ulloa family of Lauria.Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, following the abolition of the feudal system, it passed from the jurisdiction of Calabria Citra to that of Basilicata becoming a Lucanian municipality. In the post-unification period the population still lived in a pitiful state and this led to the birth of the phenomenon of banditry; the situation was worsened by a series of floods and landslides that led the population to leave the town.

How to orient yourself

How to get

By car

• Starting from Power the distance is 125.4 km along the E847.

• a first alternative that can be covered in 1 h 57 minutes, passing through state road 598 of the Valle d’Agri Fund.
• another alternative is to take A3 / E45 and SS653 in 2h 9 minutes.

• Starting from Matera

• passing through the state road 106 Jonica / E90 (97.6 km) it takes 1 hour and 12 minutes.
• passing through the state road 7 via Appia it takes 1 hour and 16 minutes.

How to get around

What see

• Castle. The castle of Valsinni is located on the highest point of the ancient village, whose alleys wind in concentric rows and superimposed at its feet, and dominates the Sinni valley, this ancient city could be the mythical Greek city of Lagaria, founded by Epeus, the builder of the Trojan horse. 

Events and parties

• Feast of San Fabiano. 20 th January. The celebrations are mostly religious. Valsinni celebrates its patron saint also on this date because the church commemorates the dies natalis on January 20, the day of Fabiano's martyrdom. The statue and the relic of the saint are carried in procession through the streets of the town. 
• Celebrations for San Fabiano. May 10. The feast is also added to the solemn religious celebrations profane. This date was probably chosen for the favorable spring climate, but tradition has it that on this day, to be precise May 10, 1718, the statue of the saint arrived for the first time in Valsinni.

The religious celebration actually begins 9 days before, with the Novena: in the 9 evenings preceding the actual celebrations, the Rosary is sung and recited in church. On the evening of the eve, the Vespers are recited in a very heartfelt way, which ends with the kiss of the relic.

On the day of the feast, Holy Mass takes place in the morning, preceded by a tour of the town of a band group, and an afternoon procession. The latter takes place both in the alleys of the historic center and in the new part of the town and is accompanied by the band. Both the statue of the saint, carried on the shoulders of men (once a sort of auction was made to have the honor of carrying it) and the relic, kept in the appropriate reliquary, which, once, could only be carried by 4 unmarried girls.

On the evening of May 10, the San Fabiano raffle took place: the winner, the first prize, usually a kid, was delivered with the accompaniment of the musical band.

A modern custom, widespread in the last twenty years, is to expose, starting from the 9 days of the Novena, a red banner bearing the effigy of the saint on the balconies and windows of the various houses. 

• fair. May 9. On May 9th, one of the 3 annual fairs takes place along the main street of the town. 

What to do

• Isabella Morra Literary Park, ☎ 39 0835 817051, @[email protected]. In Valsinni there is the Isabella Morra Literary Park which was established to make known the human and poetic story of this young poet of the sixteenth century, whose literary production was also much appreciated by Benedetto Croce. 
• Valsinni Castle. 2 euros. The visit to the castle is for a fee (only 2 Euros) but it is a must to know in detail from the park guide the tragic events of the young poetess, murdered by the brothers Decio, Fabio and Cesare, who justified their heinous crime with nonexistent " reasons of honor ". The Isabella Morra Literary Park is a cultural pearl of the South that must be known and promoted. 

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Average prices

• Beccheria Del Feudo. 
• Il Maniero - restaurant pizzeria reception room. 
• The Buon Gusto cellar. 
• Hostaria Tana del Grillo. 
• The Fountain of the Borgo. 

Where stay

Moderate prices

• B&B San Francesco (Contrada Terzo, 15), ☎ 39 347 0851277. the B&B San Francesco is located in the center of Valsinni 
• La Mortella Farmhouse (Rotondella), Contrada Mortella, 7, ☎ 39 380 5151741, @[email protected]. 

Average prices

• Hotel San Giorgio (San Giorgio Lucano), Via Tripoli, 2, ☎ 39 083 5846715. 

High prices

• Palace of the Poets (Tursi), via Manzoni, 75028, ☎ 39 083 5532631. 

Safety

• Emergency medical Service, Via Isabella Morra, ☎ 39 0835 818368. 
• Emergency medical Service (Continuity care service), Via Carmine, 46, ☎ 39 0835818368. 
• Municipal police, ☎ 39 0835 2671. 

How to keep in touch

Around

• Noepoli - About 21 km from Valsinni you can visit the center of Noepoli (Power) where you can visit the Madonna of Constantinople. Its patronal feast is one of the religious events scheduled in Pollino National Park.
• Policoro - If you want to spend a day at the beach, there are two places in the Magna at about 30 km Greece: Nova Siri and Policoro and in the latter locality there is the museum of Siritide.

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Valsinni
• Commons contains images or other files on Valsinni

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