Pomarico is a small town of 4500 inhabitants in Southern Italy, in the region 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...

. It is about 30 km far from Matera

Matera, Italy

Matera is a town and a province in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Matera. The town lies athwart a small canyon, which has been eroded in the course of years by a small stream, the Gravina.- History :...

, the capital of the province

Province of Matera

The Province of Matera is a province in the Basilicata region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Matera.It has an area of 3,447 km², and a total population of 203,837 . There are 31 comunes in the province . The main comunes by population are:- External links :* **...

 to which Pomarico belongs.

History

The town was founded about 850 AD by Greeks. An old castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 was built but only few ruins of it remain.

Main sights

• The Marquess Palace, built in the 18th century, and still standing in the centre of the town.
• The Main Church dedicated to St. Michael, also built in that period. It has a baroque
  Baroque
  The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
  
   façade and contains a beautiful wooden statue of St. Michael (1400), as well as paintings of Pietro Antonio Ferro and Andrea Vaccaro.
• The church of St. Anthony of Padua
  Anthony of Padua
  Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...
  
  (18th century). It lies by a former convent
  Convent
  A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
  
  , that was transformed into the City Hall.

Notable people

The most known citizens of Pomarico were Niccolò Fiorentino (lawyer and patriot during the Neapolitan Revolution, 1799) and Francesco Caggiani (awarded with a gold medal during the World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

).

The elementary school in the city is named in honor of Caggiani.

Franco Selvaggi, member of the 1982 Italy side that won the World Cup, was from Pomarico.
Giuseppe Gargano, immigrant to New York returned and donated first ambulance for the city.

Antonio Bonavista (1967-2011) was a brilliant Art teacher, a fervent Historian, an experienced Politician. An enthusiastic scholar of Antonio Vivaldi, he discovered Pomarican origins of the composer's mother.

External links

• (Official site)
• http://vitus.cjb.net
• http://www.pomarico.org
• http://www.basilicata.cc/lucania/pomarico