Venosa

 ( Www.comune.venosa.pz.it Official Website ) 

The Jews of Venosa initially buried their dead in a set of catacombs, likely built and used between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. When the catacombs fell out of use, local Jews began burying their deceased on the hill atop the catacombs, with some tombstones dating back to the 9th century still visible, repurposed into the walls of a church nearby. Inscriptions, primarily in Greek and Latin, exhibit a transition to Hebrew language, while artistic themes show a preference for Jewish symbols such as the Temple menorah. Despite this distinct identity, the community actively engaged with broader society, with Jewish officials holding public positions in the town.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Venusia was sacked by the Heruls, and in 493 AD it was turned into the administrative centre of the area in the kingdom of Italy, although later this role was moved to Acerenza.

The Lombards made it a in 570/590.

Next rulers in the 9th century were the Byzantine Empire, who lost control of it after their defeat in 1041 by the Italo-Normans. Under the latter, Venosa was assigned to Drogo of Hauteville. In 1133 the town was sacked and set on fire by Roger II of Sicily.

His later successor Frederick II had a castle built here where a Lombard outpost existed before, which was to house the Treasury (Ministry of Finances) of the Kingdom of Sicily.

Frederick's son, Manfred of Sicily, was perhaps born here in 1232. After the latter's fall, the were replaced by the Angevines; King Charles of Anjou assigned Venosa as a county to his son Robert.

Then, during Aragonese rule, the Gesualdo family, which included the notorious prince and musician Carlo Gesualdo, took control in 1561.

Despite the plague that had reduced its population from the 13,000 of 1503 to 6,000, Venosa had a flourishing cultural life under the Gesualdos: apart from the famous Carlo, other relevant figures of the period include the poet Luigi Tansillo (1510–1580) and the jurist Giovanni Battista De Luca (1614–1683).

Venosa took part in the Masaniello in 1647. The Gesualdos were in turn followed by the Ludovisi and the Caracciolo families.

Home to a traditionally strong republican tradition, Venosa had a role in the peasant revolts and the Carbonari movement of the early 19th century.

A true civil war between baronial powers and supporters of the peasants' rights broke out in 1849, being harshly suppressed by the Neapolitan troops.(See Sicilian revolution of independence of 1848.)

In 1861, after the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the Italian unification, Venosa was occupied by some bands of brigands under the command of Carmine Crocco in order to restore the Bourbon power in Basilicata.

• The Aragonese castle, built in 1470 by Pirro del Balzo Orsini. It has a square plan with four cylindrical towers. The shining sun, the del Balzo coat of arms, is visible on the western towers. It was turned into a residence by Carlo Gesualdo and Emanuele Gesualdo, who added also an internal loggia, the north-western wing and bastions used as prisons. From 1612 it was the seat of the Accademia dei Rinascenti. It is now home to the National Museum of Venosa, inaugurated in 1991, with ancient Roman and other findings up to the 9th century. The entrance is preceded by a fountain conceded by King Charles I of Anjou.
• Many fragments of Roman workmanship are built into the walls of the cathedral, which is due to Pirro del Balzo also ().
• The abbey church of SS. Trinità is historically interesting; it was consecrated in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II and passed into the hands of the Knights of Saint John in the time of Boniface VIII (1295–1303). In the central aisle is the tomb of Alberada, the first wife of Robert Guiscard and mother of Bohemund. An inscription on the wall commemorates the great Norman brothers William Iron Arm, Drogo, Humfrey and Robert Guiscard. The bones of these brothers rest together in a simple stone sarcophagus opposite the tomb of Alberada. The church also contains some 14th-century frescoes. Behind it is a larger church, which was begun for the Benedictines about 1150, from the designs of a French architect, in imitation of the Cluniac church at Paray-le-Monial, but never carried beyond the spring of the vaulting. The ancient amphitheatre adjacent furnished the materials for its walls.
• Baroque Church of the Purgatory (or San Filippo Neri)
• The Archaeological Area of Notarchirico, in the communal territory. It covers the Palaeolithic period with eleven layers dating from 600,000 to 300,000 years ago. Remains of ancient wildlife, including extinct species of , and , have been found, as well as a fragment of a femur of Homo erectus.
• Jewish catacombs with inscriptions in Hebrew language, Greek language and Latin show the importance of the Jewish population here in the 4th and 5th centuries.
• Remains of the ancient city walls and of an amphitheatre still exist, and a number of inscriptions have been found there.
• Venosa Cathedral

• Horace (65 BC8 BC): Roman poet
• Manfred (1232–1266): king of Sicily
• Bartolomeo Maranta (1500–1571): physician, botanist, and literary theorist
• Luigi Tansillo (1510–1568): poet
• Carlo Gesualdo (1566–1613): music composer, lutenist and nobleman
• Giovanni Battista de Luca (1614–1683): jurist and cardinal
• Giacomo Di Chirico (1844–1883): painter
• Mario de Bernardi (1893–1959): colonel and aviator
• Cinzia Giorgio (b. 1975): writer
• Chiello (b. 1999): singer-songwriter and rapper

• Tortolì, Italy
• Bernalda, Italy