Irsina (Montepelòse or Mondepelòse in the Irsinese dialect, until 1895 called Montepeloso) is an Italian town of 4 559 inhabitants in the province of Matera in Basilicata.
With 262 km²
of land area, Irsina is the 59th largest municipality in Italy by
extension, second in Basilicata only to Matera (388 km²). It is
located at an altitude of 548 m a.s.l. dominating the Bradano
valley, in the extreme northern part of the province, bordering the
north-eastern part of the province of Potenza and the western part
of the metropolitan city of Bari.
It borders to the north
with the municipality of Genzano di Lucania (PZ) (32 km), to the
east with Gravina in Puglia (BA) (25 km), to the south with Grassano
(22 km) and Grottole (32 km), and to the west with Tricarico (32
km), Oppido Lucano (PZ) (33 km) and Tolve (PZ) (35 km). It is 40 km
from Matera and 59 km from the regional capital Potenza.
In
its territory, about 10 km from the inhabited center, there is the
Verrutoli wood, a wooded area of about 650 hectares located at an
altitude of 600 m asl, with an equipped area and nature reserve for
a group of fallow deer that they live freely in the woods. Irsina
has as fraction: Santa Maria d'Irsi and Borgo Taccone, the latter
located about 14 km north-west of the municipality. Both fractions
originated with the agrarian reform of 1950.
Ancient history
Irsina is one of the oldest towns in Basilicata,
as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds dating back to the
Greek and Roman periods. From the Middle Ages until February 6,
1895, the name of the town was Montepeloso. As for the etymology, it
seems that the name Montepeloso derives from the Greek plusos, which
means fertile and rich land, modified in pilosum by the Latins. The
current name seems to derive from the Latin Irtium.
It was
besieged and invaded in 895 by the Saracens, who destroyed it in
988; it was rebuilt by Prince Giovanni II of Salerno and was
disputed between the Byzantines and the Normans.
Norman
history
The territory of Irsina is at the center of the battle of
Montepeloso, fought on 3 September 1041, a short distance from the
banks of the Bradano river. The Byzantine army is led by Augusto
Bugiano (Boioannes); the Norman forces are commanded by Atenolfo,
brother of the Prince of Benevento, who also coordinates the
Longobard military. The knights are led by Guglielmo d'Altavilla and
Argiro. The Normans launch the first charge, while the Greeks feel
the blow and fall by the hundreds.
William I of Altavilla is
sick, but leaves his tent, placed on a hill, and throws himself into
the fray. According to the chronicler Guglielmo di Puglia, the
Norman knights defeat the Byzantine forces and the troops that come
from Calabria, Sicily and Macedonia and a group of Paulicians
mercenaries. According to the historian De Blosiis, the hero of the
battle is Gualtiero, son of the Count Amico. The Byzantines are
driven back by the Norman troops, who are successful and, therefore,
the city passed under the Norman dominion. The Normans capture
Augusto Bugiano, transfer him to Melfi together with the Byzantine
insignia and then deliver him to Atenolfo in Benevento.
According to the chronicle of Amato di Montecassino, Tristano, a
knight following the Altavilla family in the Vulture area, is the
first Norman Count of Montepeloso, one of the twelve baronies of
which the County of Puglia is made up.
In 1059 at the Council
of Melfi I, the Pope Nicholas II elevates the County of Puglia to
the Duchy of Puglia and entrusts it to the Altavilla family. The
second Lord of the city, in 1068, is Goffredo, count of Conversano,
a nephew of Roberto il Guiscardo.
In 1123 the pope Callisto
II with a bull elects Montepeloso as a bishopric, also to contrast
the Byzantine presence still strong in the country. In 1132 the
citizens joined the revolt against Roger II and Montepeloso became a
fiefdom of Tancredi di Conversano, count of Brindisi, but the
following year Roger II punished it for having sided with the rebels
and had it razed to the ground.
Swabian and later history
In the Swabian period it was annexed to the county of Andria and
after the death of Frederick II it became a marquisate under the
lordship of Manfredi. In 1266, after the battle of Benevento, it
passed under the dominion of the Angevins who donated it to Pietro
di Beaumont, Count of Montescaglioso and later to Giovanni di
Monfort. On 5-1-1309 King Charles II of Anjou gives to his
son-in-law
Bertrando del Balzo, lord of Berre in Provence, the county of
Montescaglioso of which Montepeloso was part. This feud will remain
in the del Balzo family until its confiscation by the Aragonese,
following the conspiracy of the barons, to enter into the possession
of King Federico d'Aragona, husband of Isabella del Balzo, duchess
of Andria. In 1586 it was purchased by the rich Genoese family of
the Grimaldi and finally passed to the Riario Sforza, who were the
last feudal lords of Montepeloso.
In 1799 he joined the
republican uprisings by raising the tree of liberty, soon suffocated
by the troops of Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo. After the unification of
Italy it was affected by the phenomenon of banditry.
Religious architectures
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta: built in the 13th century and
rebuilt in 1777, with a baroque façade and a Gothic-style mullioned
bell tower. Inside there is a baptismal font in red marble and
several paintings of the Neapolitan school of the eighteenth
century. Also inside the cathedral there is also the marble statue
of Sant'Eufemia; the work was attributed to Mantegna by Clara Gelao,
director of the Provincial Art Gallery of Bari, with the support of
some critics including Vittorio Sgarbi, and was exhibited at the
Mantegna exhibition held in 2006 in Mantua. According to other
critics, however, including Giovanni Agosti who curated the Mantegna
exhibition at the Louvre, the work, also exhibited in that
exhibition, is to be attributed to Pietro Lombardo. The debate
between the two currents of thought is still open.
Church of
the convent of San Francesco (former castle of Frederick II): with
an architectural layout with a nave and side chapels. Dating back to
the 12th century, it was restored several times starting from the
16th century until it assumed the current Baroque facies dating back
to the 18th century. The church preserves a wooden crucifix from the
second half of the 17th century, placed close to the left altar, and
a 17th century sculpture depicting San Vito. Its crypt is decorated
with 14th century Umbrian-Sienese school frescoes depicting the
Redeemer, Coronation, Annunciation, Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Church of Maria Santissima del Carmine (Purgatory): preserves a
canvas depicting St. Michael the Archangel and a Madonna del Carmine
by Andrea Miglionico, an Annunciation from 1622 by Pietro Antonio
Ferro and a 1600 canvas depicting the Wedding at Cana.
Church
of the Madonna della Pieta. It stands opposite the western side of
the walls of ancient Montepeloso, in an area that has been affected
by the Benedictine monastery of S. Maria dello Juso since the 11th
century. Regarding its foundation, a terminus ante quem would be
represented by a bishop's coat of arms on one side of the altar
dating back to the 16th century. Its title refers to the profound
and secular devotion of the Addolorata with Christ in her womb which
spread in Irsina towards the middle of the 16th century, by some
bishops in close contact with the Roman cultural environment. The
first attestation found in an iconographic source is dated 1703. It
is a view by Pacichelli which shows an architectural layout
consisting of two buildings. Currently, the church has a single nave
layout oriented in the east-west direction but with the relative
disposition of the presbytery and the entrance not consistent with
the canonical liturgical axis which provides, as we know, the altar
to the east. The element of greatest artistic value is certainly the
main entrance, whose reused medieval arch, in carved marble
embellished with original interweaving geometric motifs and floral
and zoomorphic elements, is inserted inside a portal with piers,
frames and moldings with a late Renaissance taste.
Civil
architectures
Lombardi Palace
Cantorio Palace
Angeletti
Palace
Nugent Palace
Porta Arenacea
Porticella dei Greci
Porta Maggiore or of Sant'Eufemia
Door of Providence
Ruins of
the Ancient Frederick II Castle Gate
Turret/ Torretta
Federico
Castle Tower