Montecorice

Being part of the Alento-Monte Stella mountain community, Montecorice is hosts to about 2,500 inhabitants in an area that includes, in addition to the town centre, many hamlets. Historians, considering some characteristics of the area, such as the short distance between the town and the sea, the presence of two maritime landings at San Nicola and Agnone, the existence of a Basilian monastery, have concluded that the first human settlement should date back to the Byzantines. A first documented proof about the primitive inhabited nucleus of Montecorice dates back to 1034, when it became part of the Cilento district. It is widely believed, among historians, that the original name of the toponym was “Monte dei corvi” (Mount of the Crows)- probably due to the widespread presence of crows in the area - as it also appears in a document of 1043 in reference to a Church, called Sant'Angelo, that stood next to it. In 1073 Prince Gisulfo I gave the aforementioned church and all of its belongings to the Abbey of Cava, quickly becoming a monastic settlement. In 1552, when the inhabited centers were put up for auction by the Royal Court, Montecorice passed to the Giordano family who held it until the emergence of the subversive laws of feudality (1806), when Montecorice became a fraction of Ortodonico, from which it gained independence only in 1927, as a result of a popular uprising. One of the oldest villages belonging to this Municipality is Case del Conte, where the houses are grouped around the church of the patron saint and the summer residence of the local lord stand. The hamlet of Ortodonico, on the other hand, has launched an interesting project of recovery and conservation of objects and tools linked to the culture of rural civilization, in order to preserve its historical memory. This is how the Museum of Peasant Civilization was born, nowadays renowned for its didactical and cultural importance.

Being part of the Alento-Monte Stella mountain community, Montecorice is hosts to about 2,500 inhabitants in an area that includes, in addition to the town centre, many hamlets. Historians, considering some characteristics of the area, such as the short distance between the town and the sea, the presence of two maritime landings at San Nicola and Agnone, the existence of a Basilian monastery, have concluded that the first human settlement should date back to the Byzantines. A first documented proof about the primitive inhabited nucleus of Montecorice dates back to 1034, when it became part of the Cilento district. It is widely believed, among historians, that the original name of the toponym was “Monte dei corvi” (Mount of the Crows)- probably due to the widespread presence of crows in the area - as it also appears in a document of 1043 in reference to a Church, called Sant'Angelo, that stood next to it. In 1073 Prince Gisulfo I gave the aforementioned church and all of its belongings to the Abbey of Cava, quickly becoming a monastic settlement. In 1552, when the inhabited centers were put up for auction by the Royal Court, Montecorice passed to the Giordano family who held it until the emergence of the subversive laws of feudality (1806), when Montecorice became a fraction of Ortodonico, from which it gained independence only in 1927, as a result of a popular uprising. One of the oldest villages belonging to this Municipality is Case del Conte, where the houses are grouped around the church of the patron saint and the summer residence of the local lord stand. The hamlet of Ortodonico, on the other hand, has launched an interesting project of recovery and conservation of objects and tools linked to the culture of rural civilization, in order to preserve its historical memory. This is how the Museum of Peasant Civilization was born, nowadays renowned for its didactical and cultural importance.