The Patron
Madonna del Sacro Latte
The patronal feast falls on 2 February. It is a separate occasion from the great September festa of the Addolorata.
— Castellesi
CASTELLESI COMUNE
Avellino,
Campania
A town that has been called four different things.
Mirabella Eclano stands at 372 metres between the Calore basin and the Ufita valley, in the district of Ariano Irpino .
Its arms show a phoenix rising from three burning ruins, and they are not a metaphor. This town has been called Aeclanum , Quintodecimo , Aquaputrida and Mirabella — and it does not stand where it used to.
The Festa
Il Carro
A straw-clad obelisk twenty-five metres high, built on twenty-three beams in seven tiers, drawn through the streets by six pairs of oxen and held upright by thirty-eight hemp ropes of fifty metres each.
The Landmark
Parco archeologico di Aeclanum
The Roman city on the Via Appia, at contrada Grotte in the frazione Passo. Its bishop Giuliano was Augustine's most formidable opponent.
Did you know?
THE NAME CHANGED IN 1862
Before December 1862 there is no Mirabella Eclano
On 14 December 1862 Victor Emmanuel II authorised the Comune di Mirabella in Irpinia to take the name Mirabella Eclano. Anything earlier is filed as Mirabella, or Mirabella in Irpinia. Further back the place was Aquaputrida, and before that Quintodecimo, and before that Aeclanum — and the town does not even stand where it used to, having been rebuilt on a new site after the earthquake of 1732.
LA PARLATA
How they speak
Italian is standard, and local speech is the Irpinian variety of Campanian, on the Ufita side. The people are mirabellani, or eclanesi for the older name.
Aeclanum, Quintodecimo, Aquaputrida, Mirabella
Aeclanum grew under the Samnites at what is now contrada Grotte, in the frazione Passo. In 89 BC , during the Social War, Sulla destroyed it. Rome rebuilt and fortified it, raised it to a municipium , and in the second century made it a colony — a walled market and staging town on the Via Appia , well supplied with public buildings.
With Christianity it became an episcopal see, and its bishop Giuliano di Eclano was Augustine of Hippo's most formidable opponent in the Pelagian controversy. Under the Lombards it fell within the duchy of Benevento, until the Byzantine army of Constans II destroyed it finally in 663 .
What survived shrank to a village called Quintodecimo — the fifteenth mile from Benevento. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the settlement moved again, becoming Aquaputrida , and from the fourteenth century Mirabella . Its lords ran from the Aragona in 1443 through the Guindazzo, Tomasino, Cossa, Naccarelli and della Leonessa to Filippo Bernualdo Orsini , duke of Gravina, until feudalism was abolished in 1806 .
Then it moved a last time. The Benevento earthquake of 1702 damaged it badly and the Irpinia earthquake of 1732 razed it, and the town was rebuilt on the site it occupies now. Victor Emmanuel II authorised the name Mirabella Eclano on 14 December 1862 and granted the title of city on 26 October 1873 .
Postcards from Mirabella Eclano
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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 1,917 people who gave Mirabella Eclano 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 Roman city, and the borgo above it
Getting there
The nearest major airport is Naples International Airport (Capodichino).
Mirabella Eclano is two places a few kilometres apart, and you want both.
The Parco archeologico di Aeclanum is at contrada Grotte in the frazione Passo , on the old national road to Puglia — the Roman city on the Via Appia, a market and staging town, destroyed by the Byzantines in 663.
The modern borgo is up the hill, rebuilt after 1732 on a new site. Its mother church, Santa Maria Maggiore , is medieval in origin and holds a crucifix of about 1100 and a font of about 1300.
Out at Madonna delle Grazie is the eneolithic necropolis of oven tombs, one of which — the chieftain buried with his dog — was reconstructed in the Museo Irpino at Avellino.
Ariano Irpino , the district seat, is a short drive north.
What to see
Il parco archeologico di Aeclanum — the Roman city at contrada Grotte.
La chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore — medieval, with a crucifix of about 1100.
La necropoli eneolitica — the oven tombs cut into the tufa at Madonna delle Grazie.
Il santuario della Madonna delle Grazie — in the contrada of the same name.
La contrada Santa Caterina — where the Carro begins its journey each September.
Ariano Irpino — the district seat that orders the records.
A day here
Morning
Drive down to the frazione Passo and the Parco archeologico di Aeclanum at contrada Grotte — the Samnite and Roman city on the Via Appia, a municipium and then a colony, destroyed by Constans II's army in 663.
Midday
Come up to the borgo and the chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, the medieval mother church, and find the crucifix of about 1100 and the font of about 1300.
Afternoon
Go out to contrada Madonna delle Grazie for the eneolithic necropolis — oven tombs cut into soft tufa, entered through a circular shaft, one of them holding a man buried with his dog and his weapons.
Late afternoon
Walk up to Santa Caterina, the contrada where the Carro begins its journey each September, and look down over the route the oxen take.
Before you leave
Look at the town's arms somewhere — the phoenix over three burning ruins. Aeclanum, Quintodecimo, Acquaputida: the place has been destroyed and renamed enough times to put it on its own shield, and the last rebuilding was in your ancestors' era.
Family history
Where the records are
Archives and registers
Before 14 December 1862 the comune is Mirabella, or Mirabella in Irpinia. Its district is Ariano, called Ariano di Puglia until 1930.
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.
Mirabella Eclano is more than a place on a map. It is a part of you.
FIND YOUR COMUNE →