Venosa

Elegant, solemn and imbued with incalculable millenary beauty, Venosa is undoubtedly one of the richest, most famous and precious historic villages in Italy. Immersed in the sweet and fertile hilly landscape of the Vulture, among endless vineyards of the prestigious Aglianico wine, this splendid town was the glorious homeland of the great Latin poet Quinto Orazio Flacco (who immortalized it in verse) and of the illustrious and tormented Renaissance madrigalist Prince Carlo Gesualdo.

The countless testimonies of its formidable Roman past rest intact and silent in the vast city Archaeological Park, where the majestic remains of the ancient public baths, the ruins of the imposing Roman amphitheater and the mysterious and extensive Jewish and Christian catacombs (one of the very few coexisting examples) stand out. The beating and unmistakable heart of medieval Venosa, however, is the grandiose Complesso dell’Incompiuta (the Abbey of the Holy Trinity): a titanic, ghostly and magnificent architectural work, in which the remains of the proud Norman knights Robert Guiscard and William Popeye rest in the shadow of cyclopean naves without a roof, in a magical and dreamy atmosphere.

Dominating the lively and aristocratic historic center of Venosa is the massive and spectacular Aragonese Castle, surrounded by a large moat and guardian of the very rich National Archaeological Museum which displays the most precious finds in the area. Venosa is an inimitable, breathtaking concentration of ancient history, grandiose religious architecture and culture: an immortal city that exudes imperial elegance at every street corner.