HISTORY of Camerota
The
origin of the town is told by a legend: Palinuro, the helmsman
of Aeneas, going along the coasts of Cilento, fell in love
with a beautiful girl, whose name was Kamaratòn. She
didn’t love him. He was really desperate and followed
her in the sea, thus dying. Venus, the goddess of love, got
were angry because of the cruelty of Kamaratòn, so
transformed her in a rock, where the modern Camerot [Photos
of Marina di Camerota] a is now. In this way Kamaratòn
was condemned to watch her refused lover.
Camerota was founded maybe in VI century b.C. by Focei, the
population that founded also Elea-Velia. The name maybe comes
from the Greek word Kamaratòn, that is a building
with the shape of an arch. In fact in the area there are
many natural caves, and in Camerota the round arch is the
most used.
The town developed around a fortified castle built in 535-553,
during the war between Goths and Byzantines; the town was
dominated by many populations: Norman, Arabian, Svevian,
Angevin, Aragon and Bourbon.
The town was fortified but it was occupied and sacked many
times by Saracen pirates that occupied it between 868 and
915. In 909 the castle of Camerota was the second stronghold
of Cilento, together with Agropoli.
In July 1552 the powerful Turkish army, led by General Rais
Dragut Bessà, assaulted the town, destroyed and sacked
it and killed a lot of inhabitants. After these terrible
events many sighting towers were built.
In the following centuries Camerota was ruled by many families:
Sanseverino, Di Sangro, Marchese and Orsini.
On 23rd July 1647 there was a violent rebellion during Masaniello
revolution and the feudatory of that period, Paolo Marchese,
was killed by citizens and cut into pieces. In the same year,
Licusati hamlet was united to Camerota.
In 1881 a sailor by Marina di Camerota, Pietro Troccoli,
together with the captain Antonio Fondacaro from Bagnara
Calabra and the sailor Orlando Grassoni di Ancona, made a
legendary enterprise: they crossed the ocean with their boat,
Leon di Caprera, leaving from Montevideo, to give a golden
sword and a record of signatures to Giuseppe Garibaldi.
copyright Starnetwork srl- tutti i diritti riservati
Stefania Maffeo
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