centro storico, montano, Sacco, Saccus (denominazione latina)

In the Cilento hinterland, the small hill town of Sacco is a place where time has settled like dust on an old ledger. Its historic core, of Byzantine origin, is a tight weave of evocative alleys and ancient palazzi, once sealed by four gates. Only the Porta del Lavinaio remains, perfectly preserved, with fragments of the encircling walls trailing away on either side, two hundred metres of stone and archways that speak of a need for defence.

The centre is anchored by the Chiesa di San Silvestro Papa, rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century by the townspeople, and the Chiesa di Santa Lucia. A clutch of noble houses, palazzi belonging to dukes, archpriests and local families, lines the streets, their façades hinting at a stratified past. The present settlement grew from the abandoned medieval borgo of Sacco Vecchio, a kilometre away by the river, while far older traces, Bronze Age remains in the Grotta di Jacopo, suggest this patch of Cilento has drawn human life for far longer than any wall or palace can record.

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