Ceraso, Santa Barbara, Petrosa

CERASO
It is a very nice town, where you can spend a pleasant holiday enjoying the cool of the hills after a day at the beach. San Silvestro square was named after the 17th century church built by the Lancillotti in their garden (but with the main entrance from the square). The beautiful chapel rich in paintings, a magnificent organ and a precious statue of Saint Sylvester, was demolished in the 1920s to allow better access to the town by modifying the main road that run alongside the chapel area. It has never been rebuilt.
Marconi street is the former Ponte street, because of the wooden bridge (bridge=ponte) rebuilt on two huge oak trunks after the flood that had badly destroyed it together with a house on the right bank. The street ends at a small square where once were beaten the sheaves ("regne") of wheat. Two roads start from this square now embellished with flower-beds and benches: one (an old mule-track) leads to Vallo, and the other one is San Giovanni street, along which are gardens, vineyards and orchards and the Lake of the same name.

SANTA BARBARA
The centre of Santa Barbara is rich in antique buildings adorned by beautiful sculpted portals. The town develops on three levels: the highest is rione Calzolari, then the hamlet Santa Maria-Daolato-La Ripa and the lowest rione Piericasale; among others stand out the ancient and noble Palaces Ferolla (early 19th century) and Ferrara (early 18th). The 18th-century Chapel of Madonna del Monte (a Ferrara family’s property) located in rione Daolato, keeps statues of our Lady of Sacred Mount of Novi Velia and that of our Lady of Sorrow dating back to the early 18th century, works by talented local artists. Another “jewel” of St. Barbara was the ancient Parish Church of St. Elijah the Prophet, in Romanesque style (13th century); but on February 22th 1958 a catastrophic flood struck the Salerno province, and a lightning shot down the great Bell Tower, damaging the Church’s roof, subsequently completely demolished. It has been built a new parish church set in località Santa Maria. Very interesting are also the ancient and noble 19th-century buildings of the hamlets Isca, Vignali and Al Campo. At the foot of the village (rione Piericasale) on the bank of the Bruca River there is an ancient water mill dating back to the 10th century. In the hamlet Santa Maria there are the remains of the old Basilian Monastery (905 AD), an important testimony of the ancient origin of the town.

PETROSA
A picturesque hamlet of Ceraso, an ancient peasant village built around the ancient Manor of 1800s (today a tourist accommodation).