Colliano – The legendary origins
In light of the historical documentation it is almost impossible to define how and when the village of Colliano arose. However, two legends are linked to its foundation. The first was handed down by Giambattista da Palo, a 17th century Palomontese monk who says that a certain Sicolo was lord of Traduolo (an ancient town located in the current Perrazze hamlet), capital of an empire that extended to Sicily and he had two sons, Culiano and Polo, two brave warriors. They were probably of Germanic origin, and both went to the aid of one of their relatives, then lord of Conza who was at war with the lord of Lacedonia. They won this battle and after several vicissitudes they began their journey home but, on the way, they learned that Traduolo had been destroyed by mud. Both began to think of building a new city on the remains of the ancient one and of which Polo would be the lord, who, in the battle just fought, had distinguished himself for his courage and skill. Culiano opposed this and a bitter argument began between the two which was resolved with a choice: both would have had their own city, founding, respectively, Palo (Palomonte) and Eculiano (Colliano). Another legend has it that, when Colliano was built, the Madonna, to allow the people of Colliano to access the rural areas of the mountain, removed an enormous stone from Mount Carpineta to open a passage. Then, the Madonna placed that stone on her head and transported it to the lower area of the town, precisely in the Pistelli area, where after having placed a spindle and a large ball of wool on the ground, both of which had turned gold, she placed them on top of the boulder. and left them as a souvenir to the Collianese population. The stone today is still known as the “Pietra della Madonna”.
The roman traces
There are not many archaeological finds that can testify to the archaic presence of man in these lands; certainly, man arrived in the Colliano and surrounding areas given the proximity to Oliveto Citra, a location known for the Oliveto-Cairano culture, as can be seen from the numerous tombs found; these are generally necropolises dating back to between the 8th and 4th centuries BC. As regards the Roman era, there was no real colony here, but various findings, found in the aforementioned locality, in San Priscolo and in Macchia, highlight the presence of rustic villas and necropolises, probably belonging to some colony in the vicinity . Some of them were moved to the public flowerbed surrounding the lithic cross, at the entrance to the town.
The lombards
Before the arrival of the Lombards, the villages of the Sele Valley had undergone the domination of the Byzantines. These lands remained under Byzantine rule until in 591, by order of Agilulf (Lombard king), his son Adaloaldo, at the head of a large army, assisted by Arechi, conquered Conza and all the annexed lands. The new Lombard prince gave a definitive structure to the Duchy of Benevento, fortified Conza and chose it as the capital of a considerable part of his dominion. The Duchy of Benevento was divided into different districts and at the head of each there was an official or “Gastaldo” who later took the name of Count, while at the head of the various peripheral towns there were the “Sculdasci”.
Subsequently, there were several internal struggles within the duchy for the designation of the capital (and power) between Benevento and Salerno, especially between the two counts Siconolfo and Radelchi, which was resolved with the intervention of the emperor who decreed the division between the two principalities which had, from that moment on, two lords. Colliano was part of the principality of Salerno. Despite the peace, there were always conflicts between the two Principalities and our lands were the scene of violence and destruction.
As the hostilities continued, and Orso, Count of Conza, to defend his vassals in the Upper Sele Valley, built several castles and fortified the defensive line to block the passage of Arechi’s soldiers in their continuous raids. Added to this were the violence and the devastation caused by the Saracen soldiers, hired by both princes to fight each other. Count Orso and his nephew Adelchi died in combat as they rushed to face the Muslims who were devastating Conza and the surrounding lands and therefore these lands too.
The split between the two Principalities did not produce any benefit to the already very precarious situation, because the importance of Conza diminished, as it was no longer a focal point for commercial exchanges, it lost all political and economic interest, because everything revolved around the city of Salerno. In 866 Conza was besieged and all the surrounding towns were destroyed, including Colliano.
It was precisely in that period that the inhabitants of the plains, due to the numerous Saracen raids, now tired and decimated, abandoned their homes and sought desperate refuge in mountainous places that were naturally safer because the access points were reduced to a minimum. The farmers were not willing to abandon their fields, so they built some houses near them, close to each other, thus giving rise to the Casale, or they took refuge in defensive settlements, following the Lombard lord to the place where he established the own home, which in reality was a stronghold for him and all those who followed him.
It is presumed that the farmers of Pazzano and San Vittore took refuge in the Casale and Casalicchio area, while those of Macchia and San Priscolo took refuge with the local lord, who had settled in a small fortress in the Colliano area, called Hall, which today includes the site on which the Middle School building stands with the surrounding land.
The foundation of Collianello
When even the Casali and the Sale were reached by the ferocity of the barbarians, who killed many people and destroyed everything and the poor people were forced to seek safer refuges on the inaccessible peaks. The current site of Colliano was very reassuring and even more so that of Collianello, where, around a modest but secure castle, houses and huts were perched to form a fortified village.
It was not a confused refuge, but a planned one, since the population was led by a leader who was also the lord of the place. The Saracens and Arabs remained in southern Italy for about two centuries and introduced many innovations, especially in the agricultural field, in the production of spices and fabrics. The inhabitants of Colliano benefited greatly from this, having been renowned for many years for the production of silk.
After the 1000 A.D., Colliano and Collianello found themselves at the center of the wars between the Lombards who reigned here and a new people who came from the north: the Normans. The principality of Conza, as well as the entire surrounding area, was organized into fiefdoms and the assignees of a fiefdom built new castles or expanded existing ones, in whose vicinity the peasants, slaves, free or semi-free men, to protect themselves from dangers outsiders, they built their houses to form small villages.
Collianello and the Normans
The construction of castles continued even after the end of the Saracen incursions and reached its peak during the Norman rule, because the castles themselves became the centers of effective power passed in the countryside both to minor feudal lords and to the lords, who exercised by right or made jurisdictional powers. Collianello already had, as mentioned before, a defensive structure built by the Lombard lords to escape the attack of the Saracens, but it was the Normans who made it a real military stronghold.
Each castle was surrounded by a moat or palisade to protect its inhabitants from frequent enemy attacks. In the middle of the enclosure a regularly shaped tower was built which could have two to four floors, connected to each other by a steep staircase. The first simpler constructions were followed by others that were increasingly more articulated and complex. Therefore, in addition to its defensive function, the castle was also a social space teeming with life. If the castle was attacked, the besieged defended themselves by throwing arrows, torches and basins of boiling oil at the enemies from the city walls.
In all the villages of the Sele Valley you can still admire what remains of the ancient castles.
The castle of Collianello had a rectangular plan whose dimensions were approximately mt. 70 by 35 and at the four corners there were four towers of irregular shape. The bases of the two towers on the north side are still visible with what remains of the external reinforcements. On the north side there were, until the earthquake of 1980, two quite large vaults, which probably formed part of the “dungeons” of the castle and on them there must have been living rooms which, spared from the ravages of time, in more recent times, were used as a seat of feudal justice by state and baronial officials (in fact the name “Court” still remains for that place) and at the beginning of the present century two primary school classrooms were allocated there. The aforementioned rooms no longer exist today and in their place there are access stairs.
The news is then passed down of the collapse of a part of the wall on the east corner at the end of the last century (1892), which dragged about fifteen people into the precipice, who rushed there to observe from above a funeral procession preceded by the Contursi musical band, which must have been an unusual sight for those times. Eight women lost their lives in that tragic fall.
Following this horrendous event, the perimeter wall was rebuilt a few meters further inside. The spectacle you can enjoy from up there is, to say the least, indescribable, it is so beautiful and evocative.
On the opposite side, in front of the entrance gate, on which a coat of arms with the insignia of the Municipality was walled up, there is the small church called “Chapel of the Madonna del Soccorso”, rebuilt on the remains of the ancient one, almost completely destroyed by the destructive fury of the 1980 earthquake. On the aforementioned church, about forty years ago, around 3.00 pm, lightning struck which split the perimeter walls and burned all the sacred vestments and everything else found there.
The aforementioned castle was the one that, for a very long time, had the function of protecting the inhabitants of Collianello and Colliano from all enemy incursions. The interesting thing is that, for most of the village, the conformation has remained identical to that prefigured by the Normans and local citizens during these centuries, about a thousand years ago.
With the advent of the Normans, the criterion for assigning fiefs had changed. The feudal lord was no longer entrusted with an immense possession of land or entire cities, because the large fiefdom was sometimes broken up and each part of it, made up of small villages or hamlets, constituted a new fiefdom to be given in concession.
Even the county of Conza, of which Colliano was part, was dismembered and each town had its own feudal lord and soldier. Colliano was under the dominion of Roberto di Quaglietta and the Norman soldier Galino. It was precisely these people who significantly determined the fortification of Collianello and gave it the shape it still retains today.
The first official documents that talk about Colliano date back to 1200, when the town appears as an important religious center in the Sele Valley and found itself involved in a dispute over the Isca mill of San Lorenzo. Another official document from 1230 tells that the new feudal lord of Colliano, a certain Agnese and her daughter Giovanna, wanted to build a hospital for the poor in Colliano and for this reason the bishop made the entire population exempt from taxation on grain milling. From this it appears clear that Colliano should not have been, at the time, a small village with few inhabitants, but rather a rather strong and organized inhabited center with its own autonomy.
When Frederick II began his campaign of conquest in southern Italy, his first objective was to fortify the castles and he began, in this area, with those of Campagna and Sicignano, and then turned his attention to the castles of the smaller towns, like that of Collianello precisely. Furthermore, he decided that each castle should have its own lord and, probably, Colliano shared it with nearby Senerchia.
The Angevin era
After the death of Frederick II there were several dynastic problems and for the identification of a new king, a question resolved by Pope Urban IV who called Charles of Anjou, brother of the king of France, to Italy to fight all the descendants of Frederick II and re-establish the order.
Prince Charles decided that all the members of the administration, starting from the lord of the country, should be French so in 1268 Colliano and Senerchia were taken from Agnese and her daughter and given to Hugh of Susa, a close friend of the king of France. Upon his death, without heirs, the castles of these two towns were given to Guido D’Alemagna, an illustrious figure of the time who was already lord of many towns.
With the advent of the Angevins, the condition of these lands worsened drastically, especially due to the heavy taxation that they were forced to suffer. For example, it is said that the new lord of Colliano forced the farmers to send one of their sons on foot every day, for a distance of 10 km, just to bring milk and fresh eggs to the palace and, sometimes, he forced them to bring the goat to be milked there in front of him.
The successor of Charles I, Charles II, after losing Sicily to the Aragonese, began a geographical reform in the southern continent, in particular dividing the territory of Campania between the Citra and Ultra Principalities, effectively drawing the territories of the current provinces of Avelli and Salerno. Colliano was part of the principality of Citra.
Under Robert of Anjou some fiefdoms were fragmented, for example in 1331 Collianello had a different lord who was not subordinate to that of Colliano. At the beginning of the 15th century, the various fiefdoms and cities gradually transformed into municipalities and, in each of them, there was a university managed by the mayor and other officials. The smaller villages, such as Colliano, became reception centers for foreigners and traders and several taverns were born. One of these ancient taverns is still visible at the intersection between Piazza Epifani and the road that leads to Collianello.
The fifteenth century
In 1426 Colliano became a possession of Luigi Gesualdo and in 1448 a fiefdom of Antonio Sanseverino, but after ten years it returned to being of the Gesualdo family (and precisely of Sansone). A violent earthquake in 1466 destroyed all the towns in the upper Sele valley, including Colliano. The Gesualdo remained feudal lords of Colliano until 1477, when it passed into the hands of Amelio, but with the Viceroyalty Colliano returned to being of the Gesualdo family.
From this moment on the village of Colliano and Collianello remained unchanged over time, quietly continuing their life of agriculture and sheep-rearing. For better or worse, the lords followed one another peacefully at their helm, until 1811 when it became part of the Laviano district, belonging to the Countryside District of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until 1860, the year of the unification of Italy.
Colliano and brigandage
From this moment on, southern Italy experienced a very tragic moment. In fact, the southern brigands were not former Bourbon soldiers who, once having lost the war against Garibaldi, had turned to crime in the mountains. Rather, they were farmers who had lost their lands and the masters they worked for and began to engage in brigandage either out of real necessity to do so, or to cause damage to those who had humiliated them and forced them into poverty.
The brigands of Colliano, as well as those of the nearby lands, immediately became affiliated with the gang of Carmine Crocco, a ferocious brigand born in Rionero del Vulture. The first brigands were little known, until Giacomo Parra, known as “Scorzese”, was born in Colliano in 1838 and soon became a corporal in Gaetano Manzo’s gang. During his militancy he was injured in the leg due to a negligent fire in which he was a victim and which almost prevented him from walking. Nonetheless, he continued to fulfill his role within the gang. However, he was very generous in spirit, as when he gave a lot of money to ten girls from Colliano, without giving explanations and without asking for anything, just for the pleasure of helping them. Furthermore, it is also said that he was always very generous with the poor and, when he met someone in difficulty in the mountains, he always gave them coins and gold objects just out of the desire to help them.
After killing two of his gang leaders himself because they had expressed their desire to turn themselves in to the police, Giacomo became leader and was followed by a group of about ten people. From then on he committed other crimes, such as the killing of some of his companions and of a man who had promised to raise his son and who, in reality, had killed him and a series of thefts and kidnappings to raise money and food for everyone.
He was killed together with his partner at the hands of Lisanti, a very dear friend of his, who had accepted the proposal of the mayor of Ricignano: kill Scorsese in exchange for money. He died on January 1, 1867 at the age of 34.
Subsequently, during the Kingdom of Italy, it was part of the Laviano district, belonging to the Campagna district. It was heavily hit by the 1980 earthquake, a cataclysm that destroyed most of the houses in the village of Collianello, roads and connection networks, as well as historical monuments and cults deeply felt by the local population, such as the aforementioned church of Santa Maria del Soccorso .