Old town of Mormanno

The old town of Mormanno stands at 820 metres between the ridges of Mounts Costa and Santa Croce, commanding the Lao valley and the Mercure valley. It once counted 28 districts; today it is divided into four quarters: Costa to the west, where historians place the first Lombard-era settlements, Capo lo Serro to the east, Casalicchio to the south and Torretta to the north, with the votive lighthouse. The town is dotted with churches: the Annunziata, in the casteddru area of the Costa, is considered the oldest, built in the 9th century and enlarged in the 14th and 18th; on Piazza Umberto I stands the Baroque mother church of Santa Maria del Colle, and then sanctuaries such as San Rocco on the Corso Municipale and Santa Maria degli Angeli by the former Capuchin convent, and many family chapels of local households. The picture is completed by the church of Santa Maria Goretti, designed by Mario Cucinella, and the botanical garden at Montagnella, named after Biagio Longo. Mormanno was among the towns hardest hit by the 2012 Pollino earthquake.