Velia (town)

:"Velia" redirects here. See also Velia (hill) and Novi Velia. For the riffle bug genus, see "Velia (bug). Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula


State Party = ITA
Type = Cultural
Criteria = iii, iv
ID = 842
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 1998
Session = 22nd
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/842

Velia is the Italian (and Latin) name of the ancient town of Elea located on the territory of the "comune" of Ascea, Salerno, Campania, Italy in a geographical sub-area named Cilento. Originally founded by the Greeks as Hyele in ancient Magna Graecia around 538–535 BC, it is best known as the home of the philosophers Parmenides and Zeno of Elea, as well as the Eleatic school of which they were a part.The site of the Acropolis of ancient Elea, once a promontory ("castello a mare" meaning "castle on the sea") and now inland, was renamed in the Middle Ages Castellammare della Bruca.

History

According to Herodotus: in 545 BC Ionian Greeks fled Phocaea, in modern Turkey, besieged by the Persians. After some wanderings (8 to 10 years) at sea, they stopped in Reggio Calabria where, probably, they were joined by Xenophanes who was at the time at Messina, and then moved North along the coast and founded the town of Hyele, later renamed Ele, and then, eventually, Elea. The location is nearly at the same latitude as Phocaea. ("Cca. 1' 20" North")Elea was not conquered by the Lucanians, but eventually joined Rome in 273 BC and was included in ancient Lucania.

Ruins of Velia

Remains of the city walls, with traces of one gate and several towers, of a total length of over three miles, still exist, and belong to three different periods, in all of which the crystalline limestone of the locality is used. Bricks were also employed in later times; their form is peculiar to this place, each having two rectangular channels on one side, and being about 1.5 in. square, with a thickness of nearly 4 in. They all bear Greek brick-stamps. There are some remains of cisterns on the site, and, various other traces of buildings.

References

*1911

External links

*
* [http://www.pncvd.it/ Cilento National Park website]