Visiting Gesualdo, the entrance porticos of the ancient residential area appear characteristic. This area develops around the medieval castle with its characteristic concentric circular shape.
Among narrow lanes, alleys and passages, the ancient village of Gesualdo offers to the sight suggestions and impressive sceneries. Venturing into the passages means finding yourself in paths studded with terraces that opens on the underlying wide valley of Fredane. The valley and the castle of Gesualdo excited Torquato Tasso, who celebrated the ‘fortunate, sunny land, which floods and brings to happier people’ and deceived to hear ‘the Aufido that far away still echoes’.
The fruits that hang from the trees, pears, apples, rowans and plums, and the vegetables have made this valley famous. Once, the vegetable sellers went in the villages and celebrated the magnificence of the ‘acci’ of Gesualdo, the still today famous celeries.
The marbles that are extracted from its bowels are known as well, similar to the alabaster, of a faint yellowish color, with shiny veins.
Vanvitelli used them profusely in the Royal Palace of Caserta, Charles III of Bourbon commissioned them for the Royal Palace of Portici, they shone in the pediment of the Cathedral of Avellino and in many palaces of Gesualdo and in the baptismal font of the cathedral. It is the cipollino alabaster of Gesualdo.
From the square Umberto I, adorned with a fountain, the eye is attracted by the castle upon the entire residential area as if it wants to protect it. Gesualdo is rich in historical fountains placed in every quarter of the village. From the castle, the cobblestone lanes descend in concentric circles and from the square Umberto I, street Roma starts, then dividing itself into two branches, one towards Frigento and the other towards Villamaina. The impressive four-sided mass is included in cylindrical fortified towers, between two of them it opens in the front an arched gate, with semicircular three-arch loggia. Looking at it, the mind goes back to many happenings and many personalities who lived there.
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