Maratea (Marathia in Marateota dialect) is an Italian town of 4
930 inhabitants in the province of Potenza, the only center in
Basilicata to overlook the Tyrrhenian Sea, across the Gulf of
Policastro.
On 10 December 1990, the President of the
Republic Francesco Cossiga awarded the town with the honorary title
of "City", a title which Maratea already boasted of on the basis of
a 1531 decree signed by Charles V of Habsburg.
“Perhaps in Italy there is no more superb
landscape and panorama. Imagine dozens and dozens of kilometers of
jagged cliffs of caves, stacks, overhangs and soft beaches in front
of the most spectacular of the seas, now wide open and open, now
closed in small bays like docks. It separates it from a Dolomite
chain, all flesh-colored rocks, dotted with villages [...], ruined
castles and ancient Saracen towers, a wooded slope broken by small
rivers and streams and buried under the foliage of holm oaks and
chestnut trees. "
(Indro Montanelli)
The territory of
Maratea extends for just under 68 km². It has for indicative borders
to the north the municipality of Sapri in Campania and Rivello, to
the south that of Tortora in Calabria, to the east Trecchina and
from after it the rest of the province of Potenza and to the west
the sea.
This makes Maratea the only town in its province to
overlook the sea and the only one in Basilicata on the Tyrrhenian
Sea.
The coast stretches for about 32 km, variegated by
inlets, caves, rocks, shoals and mostly pebbly beaches. Roughly in
the center of the coast is the port. Along the southern stretch of
the coast, the small island of Santo Janni stands out.
Many
caves scattered throughout the territory, in the land registry there
are 132 between marine and land. Among these we note the Grotta di
Marina very worked by stalactites and stalagmites.
The
Marateota territory is mostly made up of reliefs, with a few
plateaus and terraces on which anthropic settlements insist.
Mountains and hills mostly bathe the ridges directly on the sea,
creating picturesque panoramas and visual glimpses.
Seismic
classification: zone 2 (medium-high seismicity), PCM ordinance n.
3274 of 20/03/2003.
The history of
the geology of the territory of Maratea began during the Anisico and
the lower Miocene.
It highlights several areas that have
occurred through episodes of metamorphism during the Appiano, whose
oldest terrigenous deposits are strongly tectonized. This
conformation originated between the Langhian and the Tortonian and
affected the deposits by juxtaposing them, overlapping them and
elevating them up to the formation of the carbonate ridge that
characterizes the area.
The deposits near the coast consist
of calcilutites, gray and brown calcarenites with marl, and
conglomeratic limestones.
The ridge is elongated in the
Apennine direction, from north-west to south-east, bounded towards
the sea and inland by steep slopes that rise from the coast to reach
1505 meters with Mount Coccovello.
Most of the
territory of Maratea is made up of mountains and hills, with a
single flat area near the mouth of the river Noce and the border
with Calabria.
The mountainous reliefs of the northern area
have plastic orographic episodes and a high level of landscape, with
the mountain slopes falling directly onto the sea. The reliefs are
mostly made up of dolomitic limestone, and the rocky walls show
characteristic chromatic variations, passing from woodland green to
the red of the bare limestone rock. The main mounts of this system
are.
Monte Coccovello: 1505 m high, it is the highest point
in the area. The mountain rests on a valley with Monte Cerrita,
called I Pozzi, with a typically mountain landscape. The mountain
stretches a slope towards the sea, with points called Monte Spina
and Serra del Tuono, which come to overlook the coast.
Monte
Cerrita: 1083 m high, also called Cerreta or Angiuleddi, is a large
relief that stretches one side along the whole Fiumicello torrent
valley. The southern side of the mountain is bare of vegetation,
which is reduced to garrigue, while the northern one hosts some
small woods.
The central part is characterized by a Y-shaped
mountain system, also made up of dolomitic limestone formations. The
findings of this system are:
Monte Crivo: 1277 m high, it stands
out for its structure with three points, with the central one
characterized by the presence of a votive cross in wrought iron. At
the foot of the mountain a fault opens up which, with a sackung
phenomenon, creates a slow and constant landslide, which over the
centuries makes the valley below slide towards the sea.
Monte San
Biagio: 623 m high, it is the extension of the mountain system of
Monte Crivo over the sea, with its characteristic elongated
conformation towards the sea it is the most important mountain
episode in the territory of Maratea. Although not very high, its
position, in the center of the territory, makes its top a remarkable
panoramic point on the coast and inland. On its top it houses the
ruins of the ancient Maratea called "Castello", the great statue of
the Redeemer and the basilica of the saint from which it takes its
name.
Serra Capeddera: 1067 m high, overlooks the north of the Brefaro
hamlet.
Serra Pollino: 1099 m high, on the top it houses the
sanctuary of the Madonna di Trecchina.
Monte Maiorino: 1003 m
high, not far from the previous one. It has very wooded slopes.
The southernmost part of the territory opens up large valleys
crossed by alluvial streams. The mountain formations, of great
landscape value, constitute three levels of vision: the rocky coast,
with the islets of Matrella and Santo Janni offshore, the almost
flat coastal area, characterized by a wooded green and rocky walls
perpendicular to the coast. Only two notable mountain episodes:
Monte Rotonda: 852 m high, it is located between Massa and Brefaro.
The top of the mountain hosts a small wood.
Serra di Castrocucco:
743 m high, it has a characteristic pyramid shape. On the north
side, it houses mostly garrigue and a lonely pine forest. The west
side, more wooded, lays two promontories on the sea: one hosts a
cedar wood, the other the Torre Caina. The southern side hosts, on a
rocky ridge, the Castle of Castrocucco. The northern part of the
mountain extends into small peaks.
In the
territory of Maratea only one river flows, the Noce, whose mouth
marks the border with Calabria.
Many streams that flow
between the mountains of the territory, but only the one called
Fiumicello, which flows into the sea near the homonymous hamlet, has
no seasonal or alluvial character. The longest streams are of this
type are the Montescuro canal, which flows at the foot of the
Coccovello, and the Carròso, which originates near Brefaro and flows
into the Noce.
The hydrographic network of the area north of
Mount San Biagio is scarcely developed on the surface, but well
present in the subsoil, which in the Maratea valley gives rise to
numerous sources, among which those of Sorgimpiàno, San Basile, and
Cavalero are mentioned.
The southern area instead has a
more evident surface network, with numerous alluvial streams that
flow in deep valleys towards the sea or towards the Noce.