Bernalda (formerly known as Camarda, Vernàlle or Bernàlle (in the local dialect) is situated in Basilicata, in the province of Matera and it is the fourth most densely populated municipality.
The town was built on a plateau in the southern part of Matera, in the Basento Valley, but on the outskirts of the province of Taranto.
And it is the rivers themselves that largely define the town’s boundaries: to the east, the Bradano, which separates it from Ginosa, whilst to the west, the Basento, which separates it from Pisticci.
The Ionian Sea laps at its southern shore, offering six kilometres of magnificent coastline visible from the historic centre, which lies over 100 metres above sea level. To the north, however, it is bordered by the municipality of Montescaglioso.
Bernalda It is not a very old town compared to the towns in the Metapontino area. The town itself Metaponto (now a hamlet of the town) was plundered and destroyed by the Romans at the end of the 3rd century BC, leading to a exodus of its inhabitants towards the hill that rises between the little church of San Donato and the Madonna degli Angeli, forming an early settlement of houses known as Camarda.
The name Bernalda takes its name from that of its founder, the baron Bernardino de Bernaudo, secretary to King Alfonso II of Aragon, who in 1497 moved the the village of Camarda, near the castle. This was a very shrewd move, so much so that he skilfully oversaw its progress to ensure that the new settlement was situated on the promontory jutting out over the Basento river valley. The village was designed with a varied layout: Seven streets were criss-crossed by eight smaller cross-streets, which today form the heart of the historic centre.
The stately homes stand right along the main roads.
The castle and the Mother Church can always be attributed to the Aragonese period.
Honours
- City Title – ribbon for the standard uniform
- City title: «Grant by Charles III of Naples and Sicily»
Civil engineering
Buildings
- Palazzo Fischetti (with its entrance on Via Manzoni and facing the church of the same name)
- Palazzo Margherita
- Lacava Palace
- Guida Palace
- Palazzo Appio
- Palazzo Ammicc
Squares
- Piazza San Bernardino
- Piazza Garibaldi
- Piazza Plebiscito
- Piazza del Popolo
- Piazza D’Acquisto
- Piazza De Gasperi
Monuments
- To those who fell in the wars, in Piazza Plebiscito
- Statue in honour of Padre Pio, in Piazza Plebiscito
- Statue in honour of Saint Bernardino of Siena, in Piazza San Bernardino da Siena
- Statue in honour of Don Domenico (known as Mimì) D’Elia, in Largo San Donato
- A sculpture in honour of St Francis of Assisi, carved from a centuries-old olive tree trunk in the PIP area near the Basentana State Road 407
Religious architecture
- Mother Church built in 1530 by Bernardino de Bernaudo. The original core of the Mother Church was small and proportionate to the village’s initial population. Indeed, the Mother Church began as a small, single-nave church. During the 17th century, the church underwent its first major extension, which involved the addition of a second nave. Within the Mother Church there were: a cemetery reserved for priests, situated beneath the choir, and another, corresponding to the Baptistery, reserved for children who died before the age of seven and had been duly baptised. Prior to the current restoration, the church was refurbished in 1930, 1952 and in the late 1970s.
- Church of the Carmine, which is very old and has undergone at least two or three renovations and extensions before reaching its current size. In 1678, the church had a single altar with an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel painted on the wall. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it was extended to accommodate statues and a large 17th-century wooden crucifix.
- Church of the Carmine, Bernalda
- Convent Church, the Convent of St Anthony of Padua, together with its adjoining church, was founded in 1616. When it came to deciding on the church’s patron saint, two factions emerged amongst the congregation: one wanted it to be dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, the other to St Anthony of Padua. To avoid upsetting anyone, the matter was left to chance, which chose Saint Anthony. The church’s current façade was built in the nineteenth century. Following the unification of Italy, it was decreed that the property holdings of all ecclesiastical bodies should be converted. These developments led to the departure of the clergy and the arrival of the local council offices. Of particular note in this church is the nineteenth-century crucifix, which depicts Christ nailed to the cross with his head resting on his right shoulder and his sides draped in a white cloth.
