FROM GRUMENTUM TO GRUMENTO NOVA: 2300 YEARS OF HISTORY

Grumentum is located, in the center of Val d’Agri, at the confluence of the Agri and Sciaura rivers. It became the main urban cornerstone in the viability of southern Italy and thanks to its strategic position, the most important Roman military colony in southern Lucania. As the city was abandoned, small housing units were created around the churches, such as San Laverio, San Marco and Santa Maria Assunta and between the 9th and 10th centuries some clusters developed in high-altitude areas such as Saponaria, Viggiano, Marsico Nuovo, Moliterno and Marsicovetere, where the Normans built castles.
The feud of Saponaria, ruled by the Norman Altavilla family, passed to the Sanseverino family in the thirteenth century until the 1800s. For about forty years Grumentum has been one of the privileged places of archeology in Basilicata and here the Superintendency carried on over the decades one of his most ambitious scientific
programs: to bring fully to light a city that constitutes an admirable example of the level of Romanization reached in Lucania between the republican and late antiquity ages. Therefore Grumentum has been increasingly proving to be one of the most significant archaeological districts for the study of the settlement and rural landscape in Roman times in recent years.

AN ENVIRONMENT RICH IN BIODIVERSITY AND OUTSTANDING BEAUTY

The territory between the ancient Grumentum and the lake of Pertusillo is included in the “Appennino Lucano-Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese” National Park and represents a place of great interest in the field of conservation and protection of the environmental heritage with Natura 2000 Network and IBA 141 Val d'Agri Area (Important Bird Area, important areas for birdlife); it is also the SIC area "Lago Pertusillo" (Site of Community Interest) and the SPA area (Special protection areas). The Pertusillo lake occupies part of the bed of an ancient Pleistocene lake; despite being an artificial reservoir, the articulated morphology of the banks with the confluence of the rivers and the luxuriant vegetation have determined a well integrated environment in the context becoming a naturalistic oasis that also hosts rare animal species, such as the otter and is part of the migration path of many birds. Access to the lake is through poplar, turkey oak and beech woods and, once you reach the shore, you can see some of the towns that crown the valley. The lake is rich in fish, especially trout and carp, and allows sport fishing.