Aliano

Infobox CityIT
official_name = Comune di Aliano
img_coa = Aliano-Stemma.png img_coa_small =


image_caption =
region = RegioneIT|sigla=BAS
province = ProvinciaIT (short form)|sigla=MT (MT)
mayor =
mayor_party =
elevation_footnotes =
elevation_m = 498
area_footnotes =
area_total_km2 = 96
population_footnotes =
population_as_of =
population_total = 1274
pop_density_footnotes =
population_density_km2 = 13
coordinates = coord|40|19|0|N|16|14|0|E|region:IT_type:city(1274)
gentilic = Alianesi
telephone = 0835
postalcode = 75010
frazioni = Alianello
saint = San Luigi Gonzaga
day = 21 June
mapx = #expr:40 + 19 / 60.0
mapy = #expr:16 + 14 / 60.0
locator_position =
native_name = Aliano
name = Aliano
website =

Aliano is a town and comune in the province of Matera and is located about 90 kilometers from Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.

Aliano is probably most famous for being the inspiration for the fictional town of Gagliano in Carlo Levi's book Christ Stopped at Eboli (Italian: Cristo si è fermato a Eboli). Published in 1945, it gives giving an account of his exile from 1935-1936 in Aliano.

Like many towns in rural Italy, population is being lost rapidly to larger cities where employment opportunities are better. In 1950 the population was 2290. Fact|date=March 2008According to the town's church newsletter, "Voce dei Calanchi," the town's 2006 population was only about 1225.

Geography

Aliano is located atop "calanchi," which are deforested,sandy soiled hills. Over the town's history, many homes were lost to landslide resulting from deforestation. In 1980 an earthquake shook the region destroyed or made uninhabitable many of the town's historic homes. Recent funding, partly from the European Union, has made renovations possible, and parts of the town's historic center is one again inhabitable.

Cultural Traditions & Superstitions

Aliano has its own dialect, "Alianese" and the population keep many old traditions. One particular example is that, during Carnivale (a festival that takes place a few weeks before Easter) village men, dressed in paper mache masks, hats covered with streamers, wearing long underwear and cow bells, march down the town's main street, throwing flour at gathered crowds and making grunting noises.

Some believe that the significance of the custom was to exorcise evil spirits prior to lent.

Another interesting tradition is the use of architecture to ward off the evil eye, the "malocchio." Many of the town's older homes, including one in the town's historic square called "casa con gli occhi" (house with eyes) are formed with two forward windows and a staircase leading from the ground up to the home's main floor. (The ground floor was probably stables for animals.) The combination of stairs and windows make the home look like a face. When lit from the inside, the windows may look like burning eyes, enough to scare away any bad spirits.

In Carlo Levi's novelist account of a year spent as a prisoner in Aliano, he notes many additional superstitions, including believe in the power of witchcraft and angels. Even today, their remains a strong belief in the power of the Black Madonna of Viaggiano (a nearby city)and a likeness of her is passed from one household to the next to bring healing and fortune to that family.

Unique culinary traditions include the use of boar's blood in a chocolate torte and the making of a laborious hand-rolled pasted which is spiral in shape.

Emigration

Loss of population is a major problem in Aliano and other similarly sized towns in the poor regions of Italy's South. Lack of opportunity and a decrease in interest in continuing the farm life of one's parents are two major reasons for population loss. It is rumored that a higher percentage of young people from the South of Italy complete a university education than their peers in the North due to unemployment situation. Professional jobs are few in Southern Italian cities so many of the village's most promising young people move their families to the big industrial cities of the North, especially Milan and Bologna.

La Voce dei Calanchi, a weekly newsletter written and published by the village priest, Don Piero Dilenge of the San Luigi Parish, keeps track of population, recording deaths, moves and births in Aliano.

Nearby

Less than a mile south of Aliano is the tiny hamlet of Alianello, which is now almost a complete ghost town, as it was very badly destroyed in the 1980 earthquake. Only a shepherd has been known to use some of the vacant homes to house some of his animals, including keeping guinea pigs he raises for food, and grazing his sheep and goats.

References

[http://www.aliano.it/ Aliano website]