Cassano Irpino and its Sources

Cassano Irpino stands on a high hill that looks out as a belvedere over the upper Calore valley. The ancient medieval village lies in an area inhabited since ancient times thanks to the abundance of springs in the area. The medieval village was probably formed around an original Lombard fort, transformed by the Cavaniglia family into the Baronial Palace. Of the original fort, which developed around a watchtower, there are the remains of a keep and the city walls. At the entrance to the village there is the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a true jewel of art dating back to the fourteenth century. The building preserves splendid fifteenth-century frescoes and a Renaissance-style triptych, as well as a Holy Stair along which indulgence can be obtained. The Mother Church of the municipality is dedicated to St. Bartholomew the Apostle. It was built in 1557, following a dramatic plague, and then completely restored in the 18th century. Noteworthy is the bell tower and the facade with the splendid late Baroque portal on which the bust of St. Bartholomew the Apostle stands out. But the real wealth of Cassano Irpino are its water sources. It is a system of four sources, Bagno della Regina, Acqua del Prete, Peschiera and Pollentina, from which the Apulian Aqueduct originates. From here about 4,000 liters of water per second start which, flowing by free fall and without any thrust, reach Santa Maria di Leuca, in the heel of the peninsula. Certainly the source that most amazes us is the Pollentina, which bewitches the visitor with the gurgling of its pools and the play of light that is unleashed by the drops of water that emerge overpowering from the ground. The Pollentina spring is now a fundamental step in the awareness circuit towards the protection of water resources and, more generally, for the protection of the ecosystem.