Terranova di Pollino

On the southern slope of the Pollino massif, Terranova di Pollino holds the high ground at 926 metres: a village whose documented story begins in the sixteenth century and whose June calendar still turns on A Pit', one of the eight tree rites of Lucania.

Why it matters

Two things give this village weight beyond its size. The first is position: the park authority lists Monte Pollino, the Timpa Falconara, the Grotta dei Briganti and the Gole della Garavina among the scenes around the settlement — the massif's own summit names and some of its most dramatic carved country, all within reach of a village street. The second is continuity: each June the community repeats A Pit', one of the eight tree rites of Lucania, a ceremony the regional tourism board describes as standing apart because it does not stage the marriage of two trees. A place where a sixteenth-century street plan, a working sanctuary and a pre-Christian rite share one small centre is doing something not many villages can.

What to notice

The park authority lists the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Pietà, the church of San Francesco da Paola and the chapels of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Sant'Antonio and San Rocco, alongside Palazzo Rusciani and the ruins of water mills along the streams. The village is also known for making traditional popular instruments, including the cupe-cupe, a rasping percussion instrument. The nearby Serra delle Ciavole rises above the settlement toward the Pollino massif's grassy karst.

Context and history

The park administration dates the first records of the settlement to the sixteenth century. Its ritual life, however, reaches much further back than its paperwork. A Pit' unfolds in the days before the feast of Sant'Antonio da Padova on 13 June: the tallest, straightest fir is felled at the locality Cugno dell'Acero, carried on shoulders with the help of oxen, stripped of its bark and worked, then raised in the afternoon of the feast day, after the religious celebrations, and climbed by the village's boldest men. Dances, popular songs and street celebration accompany every phase. The regional board's account notes that unlike most Lucanian tree rites, this one does not celebrate the union of trunk and crown — a variant that makes the Terranova ceremony a distinct case within a ritual family otherwise spread across the region's parks.