Basilicata / Lucania

Region: Basilicata.

Province: Potenza (PZ) and Matera (MT)

Area: 9,992 sq.km/3,858 sq.mi

Population: 611,000

Situation

The region of Basilicata or Lucania, consisting of the provinces of Potenza and Matera, lies in southern Italy. Most of it is occupied by the southern Neapolitan Apennines, with many rivers, mountain chains and table-land. The region is bounded in the north by Apulia, in the south by Calabria and in the west by Campania; it is open to the Tyrrhenian Sea in the Gulf of Policastro and to the Ionian Sea in the Gulf of Taranto. In spite of the relatively fertile soil, which yields wheat, maize, vines, olives and edible chestnuts, many of the inhabitants of the region still live in poverty.

History

Despite the establishment of Greek colonies and Hellenistic settlements on the coast of the Ionian Sea in the eighth-seventh century B.C. and the fact that the area was later Romanised, becoming Regio III of the Roman Empire, Basilicata remained throughout its history an area of only little consequence. The region suffered severe damage in an earthquake in November 1980.