Summonte

Summonte sits at the foot of the Partenio massif, ten kilometers from Avellino. The name comes from the Latin Submontis, under the mountain. Pre-Roman tombs of the Osci show the slope was inhabited well before the current village, which dates from the 5th century when refugees from Nola, Abella and Abellinum took to the heights to escape the barbarian raids.

The borgo grew in concentric arcs around its tower, and the arrangement still reads on the ground: stone houses ring the base of Monte Vallatrone in rising bands, with the old center closest to the summit and the parish church down in the lower village. The Della Leonessa family held the fief through the late Middle Ages and the Doria del Carretto controlled it for two centuries until feudalism ended in 1806. Hazelnuts from the surrounding slopes feed the Avellino industrial chain that supplies Nutella and the pasticceria of Naples.

The shape of Summonte, refuge above, orchard below, is the same logic repeated twice: the village climbed the mountain for safety, and the economy came back down it for trade.