Anywhere Italy
00 Irsina
Stemma di Irsina

Basilicata · Matera

Irsina

A 548-meter Bradano-valley hill town, called Montepeloso until 1895, whose cathedral holds a Renaissance rarity.

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
1 h 26 min from Bari
By train
Station in the comune
Population
4,449

Known for

  • MANTEGNA

    The Sant'Eufemia in the co-cathedral is the only complete sculpture attributed to Andrea Mantegna, commissioned 1453.

  • MONTEPELOSO

    The town's name until 1895; the triple mountain with a castle in Sant'Eufemia's hand is its medieval coat of arms.

  • IPOGEI

    Network of rupestrian cellars and cisterns beneath the centro, cut into the tufa spur and still used by households today.

  • LENTICCHIA DI ALTAMURA

    The commune lies inside the Lenticchia di Altamura IGP production zone.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J10°
  • F13°
  • M13°
  • A17°
  • M23°
  • J29°
  • J34°
  • A32°
  • S27°
  • O22°
  • N16°
  • D12°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

The festa: Eufemia di Calcedonia, 16 September

Why come

Irsina sits on the border between Basilicata and Puglia, twenty-nine kilometers from Matera, where the Bradano flows below and separates the town from the Murge plateau. The historic centre occupies a tufaceous spur riddled beneath with rupestrian caves and cisterns, a settlement built as much downward as up.

The town's civic and religious history turned on a single commission. Raised to an archbishop's seat in 1452, Montepeloso saw its priest, Roberto de Mabilia, then working as an ecclesiastical notary in Padua, commission a young sculptor from that city to carve a Sant'Eufemia for his home town the following year. The statue he sent back carries the old town's own coat of arms, the triple mountain and castle, in the saint's hand, binding the imported Renaissance object to the local heraldry it was made to honor. A hill town on a river border ended up holding, by way of a notary's commission to a distant workshop, a devotional statue that ties its Puglia-facing geography to a Veneto hand and its pre-1895 name to the stone the saint holds.

The Sunday letter

Irsina is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Irsina comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.

Read on

Irsina in our articles

How to get there

From Bari / Brindisi (BRI), about 1h 23m by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 3 hours away.

By car from the centre of Bari 1h 26m, Salerno 2h 14m or Naples 3 hours.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Bari?

Coming by train into Bari Centrale? Irsina is about 1h 28m away by road.

Every town within reach of Bari / Brindisi airport.

Irsina, photo 1
Irsina, photo 2

What to see

  • Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

    Thirteenth-century cathedral on the highest point of the borgo. Raised to an archbishop's seat in 1452, it holds the statue as its principal treasure.

  • Sant'Eufemia di Mantegna

    Carved from Nanto stone of the Veneto, the saint stands with a lion at her side. Identified as Andrea Mantegna's own work in 1996, confirmed by later scholars.

  • Ipogei e cantine rupestri

    Underground cellars, cisterns and rupestrian rooms cut into the tufaceous spur, reaching beneath the historic centre's alleys and houses.

  • Centro storico

    Narrow alleys climbing the spur to the cathedral at the summit, the surviving fabric of the medieval town before its 1895 renaming.

  • Belvedere sulla Valle del Bradano

    Viewpoint over the Bradano valley toward the Murge of Puglia, the eastern edge of the borgo.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Irsina fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

We recommend

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

Living here

  • Population 4,449
  • Remotei
  • Pharmacy: none mapped
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Bari / Brindisi, 1 h 23 min drive
  • Regional capital Potenza, 1 h 7 min drive

Common questions

What is Irsina known for?
Irsina is a 548-meter Bradano-valley hill town, called Montepeloso until 1895, whose cathedral holds a Renaissance rarity.
Where is Irsina?
Irsina is a comune in the province of Matera, in Basilicata, at 548 meters above sea level.
What is the nearest airport to Irsina?
Bari / Brindisi (BRI), about 1h 23m by car.
Can you get to Irsina without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Bari to Irsina?
About 1h 26m by car.
When is the best time to visit Irsina?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 11 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Irsina?
The town keeps its patron saint's day: Eufemia di Calcedonia, 16 September.
Which other towns are like Irsina?
Guglionesi, Larino and Calitri.
How many people live in Irsina?
4,449 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 548 m
  • Population: 4,449
  • Surface area: 263.47 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Similar

Towns like Irsina

🎨 Borghi più belli d'Italia

More Borghi più belli d'Italia towns in Basilicata