Above Tursi, on a rocky spur, hangs a small town of its own: the Rabatana. Saracens are said to have founded it in the 9th or 10th century and to have named it after their word Rabhàdi, the settlement outside the walls. The quarter still feels as though it belonged to another country, and its church holds a stone nativity worth the climb. A few kilometres further on, the sanctuary of Anglona stands alone in the landscape.
Tursi lies at 180 metres in the south of the province of Matera, with around 4,700 inhabitants. The newer town is unremarkable – the Rabatana and Anglona are not. And there is a poet who won international recognition writing in the local dialect.
What makes Tursi special
The Rabatana grew up around the 9th and 10th centuries. Tradition ascribes it to the Saracens, who settled the site, enlarged it and gave it its name. Arab traits have remained recognisable in the way it is built, in customs and in the dialect. The quarter stands apart from the present town on a spur and is reached by a steep road.
What to see in Tursi
The Rabatana
Houses packed tightly together, vaulted passages and courtyards, partly abandoned, partly inhabited again. Here you walk slowly and look into the corners; a circuit takes a good hour.
Church of Santa Maria Maggiore
The church of the Rabatana goes back to Basilian monks of the 9th and 10th centuries and is the oldest sacred building in the town. Inside, frescoes and a stone nativity have survived – the reason the Rabatana appears in every art guide to Basilicata.
Sanctuary of Santa Maria Regina di Anglona
The sanctuary stands on a conspicuous hill between Tursi and the coast, on the site of the ancient city of Pandosia. It was built in the 11th and 12th centuries, Romanesque, with surviving frescoes, and was raised to a minor basilica in 1999. If you can see only one thing in Tursi, make it this.
Castle, convent and palaces
Remains of the Gothic castle survive, the convent of San Francesco dates from 1441, and the town holds noble palaces such as Palazzo Brancalasso.
Albino Pierro
The poet Albino Pierro (1916–1995) wrote in the dialect of Tursi. His house in the Rione San Michele now holds the Biblioteca Pierro and a small literary park; a marble plaque quotes his work „Ci uéra turnè“.
Festivals
The patron saint is San Filippo Neri, celebrated on 26 May. On 8 September the pilgrimage to the Madonna di Anglona takes place – the best day to see the sanctuary in use rather than empty.
Getting there from Matera
About 70 to 80 kilometres by car, an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, on the SS 7 and the SS 598 or else along the coast and then inland. It is better to drive up to the Rabatana; on foot from the centre the climb is very steep. Anglona lies on the road towards Policoro and needs a short detour of its own.
Best time to visit
Spring and autumn. In spring the valley is in flower, in autumn it is harvest time – the area lives on olives and citrus. At the height of summer the Rabatana is very hot at midday, with no shade and no café.
Worth combining
Tursi lies in the same stretch of country as Aliano, only further south and lower down. Both in one day is too much; with two days, drive to Aliano on the first and take in Tursi and Anglona on the way to the coast on the second.
