centro storico, collinare, Capaccio, Capaccio Nuova (denominazione gergale)

On the slopes of Monte Calpazio, Capaccio Nuova is a Norman-era borgo that feels less like a medieval time capsule and more like a polite, well-mannered hill town. Its heart is a quiet grid of streets lined with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century noble palaces, their stone façades bearing witness to centuries of local power shifts, from the Berengario to the Sanseverino, the d’Avalos to the Grimaldi.

The town’s sacred architecture is concentrated and impressive: the Rosario church from the 1600s, the Observant Minor Friars’ convent with its annexed Sant’Antonio church from the 1500s, and San Pietro, already standing in the seventeenth century. A fountain of three dolphins, built in the 1700s, marks a moment when Capaccio expanded, adding civic gathering spots alongside its aristocratic homes.

This settlement is the descendant of an older story: the ancient Greek city of Poseidonia (Paestum) was abandoned in the early Middle Ages as malaria and Saracen raids pushed inhabitants inland. Capaccio Vecchia was destroyed by Frederick II in 1246; this newer borgo rose a little to the east, documented from 1051. It is a place that knows its layers.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.