Pontecagnano Faiano
Encyclopedia
Pontecagnano Faiano is a town and comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of the province of Salerno
Province of Salerno
The Province of Salerno is a province in the Campania region of Italy.-Geography:The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 139,579; Cava de' Tirreni with a population of 53,488; Battipaglia with a population of 51,115; and Nocera Inferiore which has a...

 in the Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

 region of south-west Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Its population as of 2009 was of 25,096 inhabitants. The area dates back to Roman times when the city of Picentia stood in the place and was destroyed by the Romans after the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...

.

Geography

The town of Pontecagnano is the municipal seat and the most populated settlement of the comune. It is situated close to the urban area of Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

 and few kilometers by the coast.

The village of Faiano, the co-official administrative seat, is located few kilometers of Pontecagnano on the hills on the road to Montecorvino Pugliano
Montecorvino Pugliano
Montecorvino Pugliano is a town and comune in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-west Italy.The communal seat is in Pugliano; no one of the population nuclei of the municipality is called "Montecorvino", a toponym related to the nearby commune of Montecorvino...

, next to the Monti Picentini
Monti Picentini
thumb|300px|Rocky limestone landscape in the monti Picentini.The Monti Picentini is a mountain range and national park in southern Italy, part of the Apennines, traditionally part in the Campanian Apennines...

. It is locally known to be rich of water.

The civil parishes are Magazzeno (by the coast), Picciola (close to the airport of Salerno), Sant'Antonio a Picenzia (close to Pontecagnano) and Baroncino (between Pontecagnano and Faiano).

History

The area of Pontecagnano was settled as early as the Copper Age
Copper Age
The Chalcolithic |stone]]") period or Copper Age, also known as the Eneolithic/Æneolithic , is a phase of the Bronze Age in which the addition of tin to copper to form bronze during smelting remained yet unknown by the metallurgists of the times...

 (3500-2300 BC), as testified by the archaeological excavations of two sanctuaries and two necropolises. In the 9th-8th centuries BC remains belonging to the Villanovan Culture
Villanovan culture
The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy, abruptly following the Bronze Age Terramare culture and giving way in the 7th century BC to an increasingly orientalizing culture influenced by Greek traders, which was followed without a severe break by the...

, predecessor to the Etruscans
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...

, have been found.

The Etruscan center was perhaps called Amina and dated to the 6th century BC. At the height of its power it ruled all the land from Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

 to the Silaurus (Sele) River. It was known for a temple of the Argive Juno
Juno
- Astronomy and space exploration :* 3 Juno, an asteroid** Juno clump, a probable asteroid family in the vicinity of 3 Juno* Juno , a NASA mission to Jupiter* Juno I, a satellite launch vehicle* Project Juno, a private British space programme...

 reputedly built by Jason
Jason
Jason was a late ancient Greek mythological hero from the late 10th Century BC, famous as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcus...

. Here, in 268 BC, the Romans built a new town, Picentia, to house a nucleus of deported Piceni.

External links


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