Tursi
Tursi is an Italian comune of 4,712 inhabitants in the province of Matera in Basilicata, elevated to a city by decree of the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi on May 4, 2006. The municipality is home to the Basso Sinni mountain community.
The urban center began to develop in the 5th century around the castle, in 1561 it was among the most populous, and in 1601 it was the city in the province of the kingdom with the largest number of fires, numbering 1799, ahead of Melfi, Venosa, Potenza and Tricarico.
In 968, in Byzantine times, Tursi became the capital of the theme of Lucania, and an episcopal see of the Greek rite. From the beginning of the 18th century and until the Bourbon reform of 1816, Tursi was the first of the four subdivisions of the then province of Basilicata, the Royal Collector of Basilicata was based there, and its boundaries, which extended to the Ionian Sea, included the tower of Trisaja, south of the mouth of the Sinni River, one of the seven coastal towers of the Kingdom of Naples protecting the Ionian coast of Basilicata.
Physical geography
Territory
Tursi's predominantly hilly territory is bordered to the north by the Agri River and the municipality of Montalbano Jonico, to the east by the municipality of Policoro, to the south by the Sinni River and the territories of Rotondella, and to the west by the territories of Sant'Arcangelo, Colobraro, and Stigliano. The height of the urban sector ranges from 346 meters above sea level of the old historical center around the castle, to 210 meters above sea level of the modern Piazza Maria Santissima of Anglona and to 170 meters above sea level of the lower districts.The inhabited core of the historic center is naturally protected by three chasms, more than a hundred meters in length, originating from landslides; the "Palmara ditch" to the north, the "St. Francis ditch" to the east, and the "Cathedral ditch" to the west. The village, over the centuries, has developed in the valley below the Rabatana, taking on an elongated shape. The town is about 20 km from the Ionian coast of Lucania, but the hamlet of Panevino, on the eastern border of the territory, is about 6 km away. Due to the composition of the terrain, the town has a seismic risk of 2, which corresponds to medium-high seismicity according to the current classification index.
Hydrology
The city is located in the middle of two of the four rivers of Basilicata, the Agri and the Sinni, which were originally navigable. The Gannano dam, with a total capacity of 2.6 million cubic meters, near the town of Caprarico, interrupts the course of the Agri, while the Monte Cotugno dam, the largest rammed-earth dam in Europe, near the town of Senise, interrupts the course of the Sinni.From a spring on the hill east of Tursi flows the Pescogrosso stream, which takes its name from the huge boulders found along its course. The stream crosses the town at an altitude of 190 meters above sea level and continues for about ten kilometers to the east, where it becomes a tributary of the river Sinni.
Geology and morphology
The territory dates back to the ancient Cenozoic and is formed by marly rocks, a very friable sedimentary mass composed of clay and limestone, with an earthy appearance and yellow ochre color. The morphology of the land has constantly changed over time due to continuous landslides caused by the extreme plasticity of these rocks with each rainfall. The changing nature of the terrain, full of gullies, has caused a peculiar impact on the landscape of the area.Climate
The nearest meteorological station is that of Montalbano Jonico. According to average data for the 30-year period from 1961 to 1990, the average temperature of the coldest month, January, is +7.4°C, while that of the hottest month, August, is 25.5°C.- Climate classification of Tursi:
- * Climate zone D;
- * Degree days 1.452.
Origins of the name
Later, with French pronunciation under Norman rule, it first became Tursico, then Tursio and finally Tursi. In the papal bull drafted by Pope Alexander II in 1068 the town is mentioned under the toponym “Tower of Tursio.”
A century later, in 1154, the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi during the creation of the Tabula Rogeriana on behalf of Roger II of Sicily, in the text Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-'afaq, known as the book of King Roger, points to the city under the toponym of Tursah.
History
Origins
Archaeological excavations carried out in the municipal territory, more precisely, around Anglona and nearby Policoro, have unearthed countless items currently housed in the National Archaeological Museum of the Siritide, ascertaining the existence of settlements dating back to the early Iron Age. As of the 15th century B.C., the inhabitants of these areas were called Oenotrians, but in particular, the inhabitants settled around the Agri and Sinni rivers were called Coni or Choni. Later, around the 8th century BC, several colonies were founded on the Ionian coast by Greeks from Ionia, including Siris, Heraclea, Metaponto and Pandosia.Pandosia, which bordered Heraclea, is considered the oldest city in the Siritide. Antonini basing himself on passages from the Genealogy of Pherecydes of Athens and passages from the Ancient History of Rome by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, speculates that Pandosia was founded by Oenotrus, one of the 23 sons of Lycaon, many centuries before Rome, and that he ruled over the whole eastern part of Lucania. It was very rich and important because of the fertile soil and strategic location. The two large Lucanian rivers, the Agri and the Sinni, which were navigable at that time, and the ancient Via Herculea, which ran from Heraclea up the Agri valley for more than 60 km to the Roman city of Grumentum, facilitated communications and thus favored a rapid expansion of the city. Romanelli, relying on findings from the Heraclean Tablets and Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, asserts that the Pandosia of Lucania is the place where Alexander Molossus, king of Epirus and maternal uncle of Alexander the Great, lost his life in 330 B.C. in a battle against the Lucanians.
In 281 B.C. it was a battlefield between the Romans and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who ran to the aid of the Tarentines and camped between Heraclea and Pandosia. This battle went down in history mainly because of the use of war elephants, still unknown to the soldiers of the Roman Republic. It was thanks to this unit that Pyrrhus won the battle of Heraclea, however, taking a very high number of casualties, and it was from this circumstance that the expression “Pyrrhic victory” was born. In 214 B.C. it was the scene of yet another battle in the course of the Second Punic War between the Romans and Hannibal, king of the Carthaginians, to gain dominance over the Mediterranean.
Pandosia was destroyed between 81 B.C. and 72 B.C. during the Social Wars led by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla. From the ruins of Pandosia arose, shortly before the Christian era, Anglona. Historian Placidus Troyli, examining the ancient buildings in the area, derives the origin of the city of Tursi, as a direct thread, from the decay of Pandosia, and the findings of “Murata” area, in the archaeological site of Contrada Castello, indicate the pre-existence of an oppidum.
In 410 the Visigoths of Alaric I invaded Italy, from the northeast, and sacking city after city, they headed toward Calabria and then moved up and sacked Rome. During their course, in the Metapontino, they built a tower on the hill halfway between the Agri and Sinni rivers to better control the surrounding valleys. In their looting, they half-destroyed Anglona, originating a small migration of the inhabitants who survived the looting, to rock shelters present around the tower, thus beginning a primordial settlement of the city.
Middle Ages
In the ninth century, around 826 to be precise, at the height of the Islamic campaign, there were numerous violent Arab raids throughout southern Italy. Their armies from North Africa were predominantly of Saracen origin. Initially these raids were intended to plunder villages and take prisoners to be used as slaves in the centers of the Islamic empire. Later, having overcome the initial religious and cultural differences with the native populations, the invaders around 850 conquered much of the Metapontine plain and decided to quarter themselves in dominant and strategic areas, to better control trade within the territory. Since they were expert dry-crop farmers and skilled artisans, the Saracens quickly managed to weave peaceful relationships with the local inhabitants.Since they were expert dry-crop farmers and skilled artisans, the Saracens quickly managed to weave peaceful relationships with the local inhabitants. The flourishing exchange made possible the development of small military garrisons into full-fledged residential quarters called, the most important of which still include those of Tursi, Tricarico and Pietrapertosa.
In later years, the Saracens inhabited the village, enlarged it and they were the ones who gave it its name, in memory of their Arab village Rabhàdi. The Saracen influence is still present today in the buildings, customs, food and dialect of Rabatana.
In 890 the Byzantines reconquered the territories that once belonged to the Western Roman Empire and succeeded, during the Arab-Byzantine wars, in finally driving out the Arab influence from the Lucanian lands as well. During the years of Byzantine rule, the center experienced both demographic and building development, and the village began to extend toward the valley below. The entire center took the name Toursikon, after its founder Turcico.
Toward the end of the 10th century, Emperor Basil I first formed the theme of Longobardia and the theme of Calabria and later, in 968 the theme of Lucania with Toursikon as its capital, thus completing the Hellenization plan of the Catepanate church. In his Relatio de legatione Constantinopolitana, written in the same year, Liutprand of Cremona reports that at that time Patriarch Polyeuctus of Constantinople received from Emperor Nikephoros Phokas the authorization to erect the metropolitan see of Otranto, giving Metropolitan Peter the authority to consecrate the suffragan bishops of Acerenza, Tursi, Gravina, Matera and Tricarico. It is unclear, however, whether these provisions had any real effect, since the Notitiae Episcopatuum of the patriarchate of Constantinople mentions only one suffragan see of Otranto, namely the one of Tursi, while the other dioceses mentioned by Liutprand likely continued to gravitate to the area of Latin influence.
Tursi thus became the seat of the Greek-rite diocese with an episcopal chair at the church of St. Michael the Archangel where the synod of bishops was held in 1060. The first known bishop of Tursi is the Greek Michael, documented in a testamentary act of 1050.
Later, towards the end of the year 1000, a large migration of Normans, in the guise of pilgrims heading to holy places of Christianity and in the guise of mercenaries ready to fight for a piece of land, arrived in southern Italy. They easily inserted themselves into the internal struggles between the Lombards and Byzantines, soon gaining land and benefits. The Normans contributed greatly to the city's growth, just as the Swabians did first and then the Angevins.