Overview
The origins of Belvedere are uncertain, although the village was probably already inhabited in the Bronze Age (10th–9th century BC), as evidenced by the discovery in 1886 of a prehistoric bronze axe at Oracchio, along the river Soleo.
The castle is also mentioned in the Angevin Taxation Records of 1276 as "Bellumvedere". A curious fact about the village is that during Angevin rule, it was surrounded by walls with two gateways: the "Porta di Mare", which led to the sea and functioned as an outpost to warn of dangers from across the water, and the "Porta degli Orti", which led to the countryside and the feudal lands. The Aragonese then built two more gateways: "Porta della Piazza", leading to the old craftsmen's workshops, and "Porta del Fosso", which led to the Prince's residence.
Today, it looks like a medieval village set in a picturesque landscape, facing the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side with the peaks of the Pollino National Park on the other.
Worth a visit: the Convento dei Padri Cappuccini ("Convent of the Capuchin Fathers") (1500) in which an ampoule with the relics of Saint Valentine has been kept for over 300 years (the reason Belvedere is called the "City of Love"); the 16th-century Mother Church of Our Lady of the People, in which there is an alabaster white marble aedicule with a marble statue of the Virgin with Child, from the 15th-century Neapolitan School and a walnut pulpit dating from 1742, and the Church of the Crucifix, whose 600-year-old wooden sculpture of Christ on the cross is of such artistic value that it has been declared a National Monument.
Piazza Castel Rugiero, 87021 Belvedere marittimo CS, Italia
