Atripalda

Guardian of the ancient Roman colony of Abellinum and cradled by the waters of the Sabato river, the city of Atripalda is only 3 kilometers from Avellino The first historical evidence tells us that the first settlements date back to the Samnite era when, between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the Oppidum Abellinatum was built, on whose remains the colony of Abellinum was built by the Romans. In the area of ​​the archaeological park, it is no coincidence that both the traces of the fortificatio read more

Guardian of the ancient Roman colony of Abellinum and cradled by the waters of the Sabato river, the city of Atripalda is only 3 kilometers from Avellino The first historical evidence tells us that the first settlements date back to the Samnite era when, between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the Oppidum Abellinatum was built, on whose remains the colony of Abellinum was built by the Romans. In the area of ​​the archaeological park, it is no coincidence that both the traces of the fortification of the Samnite era, built in opus quadratum, and the reticulate of the Roman walls subsequently built are visible. In the internal part, however, you can see the baths, a domus in the Hellenistic-Pompeian style and the forum. Another site of great historical value is the Church of Sant’Ippolisto Martire, a religious building that represents the trait d’union between the late early Christian period and the modern age. Known above all for the Specus Martyrum, the crypt of the colony of Abellinum where the remains and relics of St. Hippolistus are kept as well as the tombs of the Levite priest Romulus and the bishop Sabino, the current structure of the Church is also developed on a sixteenth-century plant. if its facade is in Romanesque style. In the heart of Atripalda, the Palazzo della Dogana dei Grani overlooks the main square, the one dedicated to the Savoy king Umberto I, where a museum has been set up in which artifacts and artistic artefacts are exhibited, found after the earthquake that struck Irpinia November 23, 1980. The building was built in 1883 and during the reign of the Bourbons it was used as a center for the distribution and sale of cereals from Puglia. In honor of the patron saint Sabino, on the evening of February 8, the city of Atripalda is brightly lit by the focaroni lit in his honor. An event of primary importance for the entire Atripaldese community and which develops in different points, from Piazza Umberto I to the square of Santo Sabino in Capo la Torre. read less

Origin of name: The etymology of the name could derive from Troppualdo (or Truppoaldo), the Lombard king who owned some areas on the banks of the Sabato who, around 1060, had a castle built bearing his name. According to other sources, the name derives from trepalium, the place where the offenders were executed: in support of this thesis, there are those who see in the symbol of the municipality (an armed arm of the flagellum) the memory of this origin.

It was founded, according to the imaginative hypotheses of ancient writers, by Sabatio, great-grandson of Noah, who gave the name of Sabathia to the first human settlement that found life along the vast strip of land bordered by the river Sabato, so named in homage to the descendant of Noah[7]. Less imaginative hypotheses see the origins of Atripalda sinking roots also in the blood of Christian martyrs: the Specus Martyrum, kept inside the mother church dedicated to Sant'Ippolisto and San Sabino read more

It was founded, according to the imaginative hypotheses of ancient writers, by Sabatio, great-grandson of Noah, who gave the name of Sabathia to the first human settlement that found life along the vast strip of land bordered by the river Sabato, so named in homage to the descendant of Noah[7]. Less imaginative hypotheses see the origins of Atripalda sinking roots also in the blood of Christian martyrs: the Specus Martyrum, kept inside the mother church dedicated to Sant'Ippolisto and San Sabino (patron saint of the city), is considered one of the major monuments of the Southern Christian Archaeology. The places where the first nucleus of Atripalda would have been born around the year 1000 had hosted - on the tufa plateau overlooking the town from the north-west - Abellinum, a Samnite settlement, then a Roman colony founded by Silla in 82 BC, shortly after the agrarian reforms promoted by the Gracchi. The community of Abellinum was mainly made up of milites lassi - transplanted by Silla within the walls of Civita - who repopulated this strip of Irpinia land after having removed the first inhabitants from it, i.e. the "Sabatini" who are considered the great ancestors of the atripaldesi . Civita was also the refuge of former legionaries of the emperor Augustus who, as Pliny recounts, supported the annexation of Abellinum to Apulia. In the following period, between 220 and 230 AD, the veterans of Emperor Alexander Severus from Asia Minor arrived in the ancient city of Silla. In this dizzying alternation of peoples and traditions, not all the primitive Sabatine people abandoned their land of origin: many indigenous people, over the decades, were inexorably absorbed by the Abellinati from whom they learned the Latin language and with whom they experienced moments of splendor and of greatness. Economic crises (3rd and 4th century AD), violent earthquakes (346 AD), disastrous volcanic eruptions (476 AD), invasions of territories during the war between the Byzantines and the Goths (535-555 AD) and the penetration of the entire territory of Peninsula of the Longobards, starting from Easter 568, pushed the Roman colony out of the walls of Abellinum and moved to where Avellino stands. Civita died after centuries of life intensely lived as evidenced by the archaeological discoveries - remains of a burial ground, an amphitheater, thermal buildings, roads - which have followed one another over time despite the fact that concrete - the cross and delight of modern urban planning - has attempted to archive antiquity forever in the long night of oblivion. Over the following centuries, Atripalda has however known the dominion of the Longobards, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, French, Spanish, Saracens and Greeks. After the death of Civita, while on the left bank of Sabato the Abellinum sillana was by now physically exhausted, on the opposite bank a Lombard king, Troppualdo, managed to obtain the recognition of autonomy for the population scattered in the area, detaching it administratively from nearby Avellino Lombard. It was Atripalda's birth certificate. Troppualdo (from which also derives the name of today's Atripalda), during the 11th century, built his fortress on top of a hill overlooking the town of Irpinia. The ruins of this castle recall the oldest act of gallantry in Italy: it is the historian-statesman Pasquale Stanislao Mancini (1817-1888) who speaks in reporting the hospitality granted on a winter night in 1254 to the Swabian king Manfredi by the lords of the manor Marino and Corrado Capece, loyal to the Swabians. The young king, hunted down by the papal troops, left Naples for the principality of Taranto. The Capece lords, not fearing the reprisals of the papacy, opened the gates of the castle to the fugitive king. "The good King Manfred - recalls Mancini - educated in kindness, love and poetry, wishing to pay some unusual honor for the hospitable welcome received by the Capece brothers, brought forward their two young brides who were of very rare beauty, he wanted them to sit at his sides and dine familiarly with him". Of the very interesting event is the testimony in the Historia of Nicolò Jamsilla: "The custom and the pride of the courts forced the sovereigns in those times to sit alone at lunch, strictly excluding women, considered inferior beings, but King Manfred wanted it to be broke this barbarous custom by saying: I will break this barbarism starting from today and the castle of Tripaldo will keep memory of me". Of the historic castle - which King Manfredi himself, by virtue of that act of gallantry, imagined as "something sacred for the beautiful Italian women" of future generations - only stones remain. In the feudal era (we are here in 1502), the city on the bank of Sabato became the domain of Queen Giovanna, granddaughter of the Spanish king Ferdinand the Catholic. Ten years later, on 13 September 1512, the ancient land of the Sabatini was ceded for 25,000 ducats to Alfonso Branai (or Granai) Castriota, first Marquis of Atripalda from 1513 [8], descendant of Vrana Konti, one of the closest collaborators, consultants and one of the best commanders of Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg[9], a famous Albanian hero in the war against the Ottomans. Camilla was born from Alfonso, who, marrying Ferrante Caracciolo, the Marquis of Castellaneta in 1517, gave him the right to buy back the fiefdom of Atripalda.[8] In 1559, the "Tripalda feud" passed into the hands of the Genoese noble financier Giacomo Pallavicini Basadonna who bought it for 60,200 ducats. The government of the Genoese financier served to strengthen the innate vocation for commerce of the inhabitants of the area, who, even before the arrival of Basadonna in Irpinia, successfully cultivated the "art of haggling" along the banks of the Sabato river. An episode that occurred in 1560 (therefore at the time of Basadonna) would be the demonstration of how strong was the influence exercised on the resident population by the Genoese nobleman in terms of finances and finding the resources necessary for the management of the feud: the Atripaldesi, in that year, they decided to build a road "inside the earth" to impose the payment of the toll on those who had to cross the territory of Atripalda to get from the neighboring towns to the nearby capital, i.e. Avellino. In 1564, with a deed by the notary Bernardino Brusatori of Fermo, Basadonna exchanged the "fief of Tripalda" with the fiefs owned by the noble family of Domizio Caracciolo in the Duchy of Milan, in Gallarate. With the Caracciolos, the town experienced a period of considerable splendour, from 1564 until 1806, when feudalism was abolished. In the Duchy of Atripalda after Domitius, 1st Duke of Atripalda, from the prestigious Caracciolo family, Marino I (1535-1591), a distinguished knight in Lepanto, Camillo (1563-1617), Marino II (1587-1630), Francesco Marino I ( 1631-1674), Marino III (1668-1720), Francesco Marino II (1688-1727), Marino Francesco I (1714-1781), Giovanni (1741-1800) and Marino Francesco II (1783-1844). The Caracciolos, with a "revolutionary" programming, were able to stimulate the resources of the entire valley bathed by the Sabato. The spinning mills, the iron industry, the processing of copper, paper and wool contributed to ensuring a high standard of living for the Atripaldesi - higher than that of the nearby capital - so much so that in that period no "poor citizens" were registered among the population. A notable boost was ensured to the world of culture which it knew, thanks to the patronage of the Caracciolos, the Accademia degli Incerti. read less