Rapolla

The village of Rapolla is known for the production of wine (Malvasia, Aglianico and Moscato del Vulture, stored in the cavities of volcanic tuff of the Urban Park of hypogean winery), olives (extra virgin olive oil from olive groves of quality Coratina or of the autochthonous now Ogliarola, imported by the ancient Greeks, is now widespread and in fact called Rapollese) and for spa tourism, connected to the presence of water sources acidulous-ferruginous waters which gush out from the three springs in contrada orto del Lago.

Rapolla as historic Episcopalian center boasts a very high number of sacred constructions also rural areas.
There are three convents, two monasteries, Tre Croci, ten laure, five hermitages, seven churches, and, if we consider the past as the Curia Vescovile, even the abbey of Santa Maria di Pierno and Badia Monticchio.

The peculiar characteristic of the territory of Rapolla are cavities hypogean present on each side of a tufaceous ridge.
The same buildings of historic center were built to close and enlargement of cavities existing hypogean. Particular is the site of the Urban Park of hypogean winery located exactly in front of the historic center.

The site, constituted by the cavity hypogean with one wall of the outer enclosure and, often with a courtyard in front of.
These cavities are intended from remote times to the conservation of the wines produced on the nearby hills sunny, and the choice of ubicarle precisely N-W stems from the fact that it is not a sunny exposure, (a mangós according the local dialect), allows to contain the thermal excursions that can alter the internal temperatures required for the conservation of the wine.
The area hosts for several years the Festival of the chestnut and of typical products, a food and wine event in cultural background and reminiscent.

History

The remains of a mammoth necropolis found in the locality of Toppo d'Avuzzo testify that the territory of Rapolla was already inhabited during the Neolithic. The legend wants that his birth is placed during the XI century b.c. by the descendants of the mythical hero Diomedes who built in the area between the Vulture and Ofanto some times including that of Venus in Rocchetta and that of Apollo at Rapolla. The official history dates back to the V century B.C. by Greek settlers who founded in southern Italy and the islands, the Magna Grecia. Together with the major centers of the epoch (Metaponto, Heraclea, Taranto, Siponto, Bari, Lucera and Troia) Rapolla is configured as one of the greek sentinels more extreme in the hinterland.

More accurate information are linked to the battle of Heraclea in the III century B.C. on the Ionic coasts, when troops of the Roman general Luscino retired in the hinterland lucano after the defeat with the Greeks of Pyrrhus and their Thirty Elephants, encamped on the terraces of the Cerro site to the east of the territory rapollese; of there the romans intravidero a fortification at the foot of Monte Vulture: was the then Strapellum, a military fort with a Greek temple in the center dominated by a tower; when the Roman soldiers passed the Vallone dell'Ontrolmo entered Strapellum, eager to meet the cavalry Lucana, saw people pours on the ground and remains of battle; then, convinced not to add "bloodshed" Roman soldiers laid on the door of the Country (presumably the arc of the Annunziata) a tile Red earthenware with an inscription bearing two twisted snakes that in military language romano then wanted to say, "Attention: is sacred place, you do not pass, it does noise".

In Roman times you have news related to battle against Hannibal in contrada Oaks d'Annibale, where the African leader would encamped before the battle against the Consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus of nearby Guiscardo, in 210 B.C. Other testimony of the Roman era is the sarcophagus of Rapolla, found in 1856 in the locality of shaft in plan. The marble monument is among the best examples of funerary art of the masters of the Asia Minor and depicts in the lower part a series of divinity and on the cover depicts with a sleeping beauty the body of the deceased that you think belongs to Emilia Scaura. Preserved today in the clock tower of the Castle of Melfi, its dating is to abide around the second half of the II century A.D. the

Longobard stronghold of "Contea di Conza" built on the ruins of the ancient Strapellum, welcomed at the end of the X century a flourishing Basilian Community. At the beginning of the XI century, it was conquered by the Normans immediately after Melfi. In 1127 it was attacked and looted by Lotario III and suffered the same fate in 1163 for opera die Normans.