The Patron
Santi Modestino, Fiorentino e Flaviano
The three martyrs are kept on 14 February. They died in the country around Mercogliano, and Modestino is patron of Avellino as well.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Avellino,
Campania
A town below a sanctuary that keeps its own archive.
Mercogliano lies under Montevergine , the mountain and the sanctuary that dominate this corner of the Partenio , a few minutes from Avellino .
The town was founded by people running from something — refugees from Roman Abellinum who took to the hill when the Lombards came south. It is in the diocese of Avellino, with one exception written into the diocese's own description: the land that belongs to the abbey.
The Mountain
Montevergine
The sanctuary stands at 1,493 metres above the town, reached by funicular, and is a place of pilgrimage for the whole province.
The Landmark
Palazzo Abbaziale di Loreto
The abbey's house in the valley, and the home of its library and archive — a separate body of records from the diocese's.
Did you know?
A DIOCESE WITH A HOLE IN IT
Mercogliano is in the diocese of Avellino — except where it isn't
The diocese of Avellino takes in the comune of Mercogliano with one exception written into its own description: the territory belonging to the abbey of Montevergine. The abbey is a territorial jurisdiction with records of its own, so where a family lived inside the comune can decide which archive holds their baptism.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
Italian is standard, and local speech is the Irpinian variety of Campanian. Mercoglianesi is the demonym.
Refugees from Abellinum, and the mountain above them
After the Samnite wars a Roman colony grew in this country, and a milestone found at Alvanella shows the road to Naples already ran through it. The cult of Mercury was kept here, and the medieval name Castrum Mercuriani — and the god on the comune's shield — descend from it.
The town proper begins in flight. In the last decades of the sixth century , as the Lombards came south, a colony of refugees from the nearby Roman city of Abellinum took to this hill and stayed. It appears in a document of 982 , still only a casale of Avellino.
Between 1077 and 1089 the casale was raised to the rank of castle , and with that came administrative independence — the moment Mercogliano stops being an outlying hamlet of the provincial seat and becomes a place in its own right. In 1136 its lord was Enrico di Sarno, holding under Rainulfo, count of Avellino. A year later Roger II besieged the town and took the castle.
Above it all stands Montevergine , at 1,493 metres — sanctuary, abbey, and the destination of the great pilgrimage of the province. The abbey is a jurisdiction of its own, and the town below has lived beside that fact for eight centuries.
Postcards from Mercogliano
Wear Mercogliano
Carry your heritage with pride. Timeless designs inspired by the heart of Avellino.
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Where this
belongs
belongs
PROVINCIA DI AVELLINO
Discover the beauty, culture and traditions of Avellino and its remarkable comuni.
EXPLORE AVELLINO →REGIONE CAMPANIA
From the mountains to the sea, Campania is a region of history, flavor and soul.
EXPLORE CAMPANIA →From the passenger index
At least 680 people who gave Mercogliano as their home are recorded by name among Italian arrivals in the United States — each with the ship they sailed on and the day they landed.
A floor, not a total. The index covers arrivals through 1912, holds nothing between May 1907 and December 1911, and many passengers were written down with no home town at all. Where a name is there, it is there with its record.
Have Orso look for your family →Ready to visit
The sanctuary, and the town beneath it
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Naples International Airport (Capodichino).
Mercogliano is really several places, and worth treating as such.
Capocastello , the medieval centre, is where the town began and where the castle stands. Below it Torelli and Torrette are modern, busy and commercial — the economic centre of the comune and one of the largest in the province.
The reason most people come is above: the Santuario di Montevergine at 1,493 metres, reached by funicular, with the whole of the Partenio around it. In the valley the Palazzo Abbaziale di Loreto holds the abbey's library and archive.
Avellino — the diocese, and the State Archive — is minutes away.
What to see
Il Santuario di Montevergine — the sanctuary above the town, reached by funicular.
Il Palazzo Abbaziale di Loreto — the abbey's house in the valley, with its archive.
Il castello medievale — built when Mercogliano ceased to be a casale.
Capocastello — the medieval centre on the hill.
Torrette e Torelli — the modern lower town, and the comune's economic centre.
Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo — the neighbouring comune on the road up.
A day here
Morning
Take the funicular to the Santuario di Montevergine. It is the reason the town is known, the destination of the province's great pilgrimage, and the jurisdiction that may hold your family's baptism if they lived on the abbey's ground.
Midday
Come back down to the Palazzo Abbaziale di Loreto, the abbey's house in the valley and the home of its library and archive.
Afternoon
Walk Capocastello, the medieval centre, and the ruins of the castle built after the Norman conquest — the point at which Mercogliano stopped being a casale of Avellino and became a place in its own right.
Late afternoon
Drive down through Torelli and Torrette. They are modern and commercial and nothing like the old town, and if your family stayed into the twentieth century this is where they will have ended up.
Before you leave
Stop on the road below the sanctuary and look back up at the mountain. Emigrant families from all over Irpinia carried the Madonna of Montevergine with them, and this is the view they were remembering.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
The diocese of Avellino covers Mercogliano except the territory of the abbey of Montevergine, which keeps its own records.
Related places
Keep exploring
The journey does not end at the boundary of one comune. The province, the region and the neighbouring towns often hold the rest of the picture.
Your Roots. Their Story. Your Place.
Mercogliano is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →