MAGNA GRECIA AND MEDITERRANEO. THE SETTLEMENT OF AKROPOLIS

Located in the south of the Sele’s plain, bordering the archaeological site of Poseidon, by the Romans called Paestum, Agropoli is one of the first Tyrrhenian settlements of Cilento (Fig. 01). Its name denotes the defensive character of the town, built on the top of a rocky headland for security reasons. The center has retained clear traces of Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Angevin and Aragonese periods, in the morphology of the urban fabric and in place names¹, revealing at the same time characters in common with many other coastal settlements in the Mediterranean, places of exchange and contamination. As like as many other places in the Mediterranean, Agropoli also represented an important route in commercial and maritime trade, preserving, in the urban structure and in place names, the traces of those previous experiences. Surrounded by walls, the city has remained virtually unvaried in its form, until the end of the defensive needs, then it expanded outside the walls and the first coastal villages were settled. The Greek age, dating from the Seventh and Sixth centuries a.C., is testimonied by the column drums and blocks of travertine which referring to the stylobate of a Temple, found in the south-eastern side of the Castle, likely to be the Artemision, dedicated to Artemis². During Roman rule, the settlement underwent significant transformations due to the displacement of communities on the coast. Firstly, in the first century a.C., in the area called San Marco di Agropoli was built Erculam, a fishing village that replaced the port of Paestum, subject to the phenomenon of siltation. Being equipped with its own boat harbour and a valid defense system due to the orography of the places, Agropoli became a strategic center to control the coast by providing protection from the increasingly frequent barbarian raids. In the Fifth century B.C. was founded the first urban center of the Citadel, below the promontory of Petra³, as a consequence of the abandonment of Erculam in favor of a more protected location. On top of the hill, was built the church of SS. Apostles Peter and Paul⁴, the new home of Christian worship. The Greek-Gothic war (535-553 AD) lasted a long time creating the conditions for the construction of a first defensive system. The lands of the Goths were fortified by the Byzantines, who strengthened the promontory at south of the Gulf of Salerno, where previously there was Erculam. […]