Palinuro, white sand and blue sea
Palinuro is part of the municipal district of the Municipality of Centola. It is one of those many cases in which the village, for some special reason, assumes greater importance than the municipal capital. In our case, the reason is very special, because the wild beauty of the territory of Capo Palinuro is unparalleled and the history and legends that hover over it contribute to perpetuate the charm of these places.
An immense arch of jagged rock stretches out into the sea to protect a bay that is shelter and natural harbor for sailors, and this must have also appeared in distant times to the Argonauts, the Phoenicians, the Greeks who frequented these places.
The Capo preserves signs of very distant human settlements, with tombs datable around the fifth century. B.C. and archaeological finds showing how the beauty and the strategic position of the port have favored the settlement of a Greek colony. The very name of the place recalls the figure of the helmsman of Aeneas, Palinuro, who fell in love with a beautiful girl named Kamaratòn, chasing the image to the end of the cliffs of the Cape, which since then took its name. This beauty is profuse widely in the burning sunsets, in the shape of the rocky loops, in the natural arch lit up against the light, in the white beaches that classify this place as one of the most beautiful in the world.
But Palinuro is not just sea; the rugged and strong character of the coast is characterized by the Mediterranean scrub, which among myrtle bushes, brooms and heather, also includes a real rarity, the famous “Primula Palinuri” an original flower that grows only in this area.
Pushing into the Mingardo valley, through the Devil’s gorge, you come across the medieval village of San Severino, the only village preserved almost intact since it was abandoned due to continuous landslides. The Castle dates back to the eleventh century and saw the events that involved the Normans Guimondo and Gisulfo in the struggle for the lordship over these districts.
Today Palinuro is a center that entrusts its resources essentially to tourism, supported by a mild climate that allows you to enjoy the sea for ten months a year and a beautiful unspoiled nature where many facilities receive visitors with hotel accommodations, campsites and, from little, with the new formula of the farm, which allows you to fully know the hospitality of the people of Cilento, and to taste in the area of production oil, wine and natural products that are the basis of healthy Southern Diet.
