Eboli
Encyclopedia
Eboli is a town and comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in the province of Salerno
Province of Salerno
The Province of Salerno is a province in the Campania region of Italy.-Geography:The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 139,579; Cava de' Tirreni with a population of 53,488; Battipaglia with a population of 51,115; and Nocera Inferiore which has a...

, on the south edge of the hills overlooking the valley of the Sele
Sele
Sele may refer to:In places:*Sele, Norway, two villages with this name in Øygarden, Norway*Sele, West Sussex, an English hamlet*Sele Priory, a Benedictine monastery in modern day Upper Beeding, West Sussex...

.

An agricultural centre, Eboli is known mainly for olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...

 and for dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...

 products, among which the most renowned is the buffalo mozzarella from the area.

History

The archaeological excavations prove that the area of Eboli has been inhabited since the Copper
Copper Age
The Chalcolithic |stone]]") period or Copper Age, also known as the Eneolithic/Æneolithic , is a phase of the Bronze Age in which the addition of tin to copper to form bronze during smelting remained yet unknown by the metallurgists of the times...

 and Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

s, and also attested (from the 5th century BC) is the presence of the so-called Villanovan civilization.

The ancient Eburum was a Lucani
Lucani
Lučani is a town and municipality located in the Dragačevo region within the Moravica District of Serbia . The population of the town is 3,425, while population of the municipality was 20,855....

an city, mentioned only by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 and in inscriptions, not far distant from the Campanian border. It lay above the Via Popilia
Via Popilia
The Via Popilia is the name of two different ancient Roman roads begun in the consulship of Publius Popilius Laenas.The first road was an extension of the Via Flaminia from Ariminum around the north of the Adriatic through the region that later became Venice...

, which followed the line taken by the modern railway. The Romans gave it the status of municipium
Municipium
Municipium , the prototype of English municipality, was the Latin term for a town or city. Etymologically the municipium was a social contract between municipes, the "duty holders," or citizens of the town. The duties, or munera, were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for...

.

The town was destroyed first by Alaric I
Alaric I
Alaric I was the King of the Visigoths from 395–410. Alaric is most famous for his sack of Rome in 410, which marked a decisive event in the decline of the Roman Empire....

 in 410 AD, and then by the Saracens in the 9th and 10th centuries. Later it was a stronghold of the Principality of Salerno
Principality of Salerno
The Lombard Principality of Salerno was a South Italian state, centered on the port city of Salerno, formed in 851 out of the Principality of Benevento after a decade-long civil war....

, with a massive castle built by Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard
Robert d'Hauteville, known as Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, from Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, often rendered the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily, the Fox, or the Weasel was a Norman adventurer conspicuous in the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily...

.

During the 1930s Eboli was able to expand into the plain after a project of land reclamation carried out by the Fascist government. It was severely damaged during the Irpinia earthquake in 1980.

Main sights

The main attraction is the Colonna
Colonna family
The Colonna family is an Italian noble family; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders...

 castle (11th century). Scanty remains of the ancient polygonal walls (4th century BC) can still be seen, as well as of a Roman imperial villa in the locality of Paterno. Eboli is also home to several 15th-16th century palazzi.

The sacristy of St. Francis
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...

 contains two 14th century pictures, one by Roberto da Oderisio of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

. Also notable is the Badia (Abbey) of San Pietro alli Marmi (1076).

Culture

A local saying, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli
Christ Stopped at Eboli is a memoir by Carlo Levi, published in 1945, giving an account of his exile from 1935-1936 to Grassano and Aliano, remote towns in southern Italy, in the region of Lucania which is known today as Basilicata...

('Christ stopped at Eboli'), was used by 20th century writer Carlo Levi
Carlo Levi
Dr. Carlo Levi was an Italian-Jewish painter, writer, activist, anti-fascist, and doctor.He is best known for his book Cristo si è fermato a Eboli , published in 1945, a memoir of his time spent in exile in Lucania, Italy, after being arrested in connection with his political activism...

 as the title of a book, referring to the enduring poverty in Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

. Eboli was the location where the road and railway to Basilicata branched away from the coastal north-south routes.

In media

There is a film based on the book
Christ Stopped at Eboli (film)
Christ Stopped at Eboli is a 1979 film adaptation of the book of the same name by Carlo Levi. It was directed by Francesco Rosi and stars Gian Maria Volonté as Carlo Levi, with Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny, Léa Massari, and Irene Papas....

(in English, Christ Stopped at Eboli).
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