The Destination
About Civita
Civita is a small village situated on the steep rocky slopes of the Raganello Valley in Pollino Geopark. It is inhabited by an Italian Arbëreshë Community. that for centuries have preserved their language, customs, traditions and religion and still maintain the Arbëreshë Catholic Church liturgy.
Nowadays the village, with approx 1000 inhabitants, benefits from a new economic growth, thanks to the development of tourism, attracted by the heritage and distinctive culture, traditions, rituals, songs, dances and unique gastronomy. As well as the remarkable landscape, Civita provides visitors with quality restaurants, guided tour ser- vices for hiking, canyoning, birdwatching and visits to the Arbëreshë Ethnic Museum. In recent years the village attracted over 18,000 visitors yearly and now the numbers are forecast to increase for the coming years.
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Pollino National Park
The Pollino National Park is the largest national park in Italy, covers 1960 sq km over the regions of Basilicata and Calabria and has the richest variety of flora and fauna in the South of Italy.The park’s most spectacular areas are Monte Pollino (2248m), Monti di Orsomarso (1987m) and the canyon of the Gorges of Raganello.
The mountains, often snowbound, are blanketed by forests of oak, alder, maple, beech, pine and fir. The park is most famous for the ancient Pino Loricato trees, which can only be found here and in the Balkans. The Highlander of Pollino Park, which stands at an altitude of nearly two thousand meters, is a pino loricato called “ITALUS” in memory of the king of Enotria who ruled this region between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. With its 1,230 years of life is the oldest tree in Europe.
Unesco
From 2016 the Pollino National Park is one of the 177 UNESCO Global Geoparks network, located in 46 countries(2022 data).
UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geo- graphical areas where sites and landscapes of inter- national geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. Their bottom-up approach of combining conservation with sustainable development while involving local communities is becoming increasingly popular.
The Gorges of the Raganello & Devil’s Bridge in Civita have been recently recognized as a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE and with it comes a demand for additional tourism to this stunning location.
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