The most beautiful villages of Basilicata

Basilicata is a land of small hilltop villages, each with its own character: stone villages among the pinnacles of the Lucanian Dolomites, clay towns overlooking the badlands, medieval centres in the Vulture and Arbëreshë communities on the Pollino. Here are the ones not to miss, area by area.

Lucanian Dolomites

Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa sit among the rocks of the Gallipoli Cognato park, facing each other, linked by the Flight of the Angel and the Path of the Seven Stones. Both are among the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy.

The Collina Materana and the badlands

Aliano, Carlo Levi’s village, on the badlands; Craco, the ghost town abandoned after the 1963 landslide; Tursi, with its old Rabatana quarter and the memory of the poet Albino Pierro; Valsinni, with the castle of the poet Isabella Morra.

Around Matera

• Montescaglioso, with the great Abbey of Sant’Angelo
• Miglionico, with the Castle of Malconsiglio
• Irsina, whose cathedral holds the statue of Saint Euphemia attributed to Mantegna

The Vulture and the north

Venosa, Horace’s birthplace, with the Abbey of the Holy Trinity; Melfi, with Frederick II’s castle; Acerenza, gathered around its Romanesque cathedral; Barile and Rionero, among the Aglianico del Vulture wineries.

Val d’Agri and Pollino

Guardia Perticara, the village of stone houses; Grumento Nova, with the remains of the Roman town of Grumentum; on the Pollino Viggianello and Rotonda, and the Arbëreshë communities of San Paolo Albanese and San Costantino Albanese, where old Albanian is still spoken and their own rites and costumes survive.

On the coast

Maratea, the only Lucanian town on the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the Christ the Redeemer statue and its coves; on the Ionian coast Policoro and Bernalda, with Metaponto and the Tavole Palatine.

Every village has its page on Ebas with what to see, upcoming events, where to eat and where to stay. To combine several stops use Plan your trip.