San Mauro Forte

San Mauro Forte sits at 540 meters in the western Matera hills, fifty-five kilometers from the Sassi and forty from Pietrapertosa. The Timponi site, with eighth-century BC remains and fourth-century BC tombs, places the area inside the Lucanian prehistoric network. The current settlement was founded around 1060 in the Norman period and takes its name from a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Maurus.

The Torre Normanna, the cylindrical defensive tower in the main piazza, is the surviving element of the Norman-Swabian castle, later rebuilt by the Angevins. The Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta of 1553 preserves a sixteenth-century processional cross. The town's calendar is dominated by the Sagra dei Campanacci on the eve of Sant'Antonio Abate, on 16 January, when men strap belts of cowbells around their waists and walk the streets at dusk in a transhumance rite that predates the church and was kept alive by the shepherding economy. The town carries Città dell'Olio status: olive groves cover much of the commune.

From Bari / Brindisi (BRI), about 2h 13m by car.

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

By car from the centre of Bari 2h 16m, Salerno 2h 22m or Naples 3 hours.