Tursi and the Rabatana: the Arab Quarter Suspended over the Calanchi

Tursi, where the East meets the calanchi

In southern Basilicata, where the region fades toward the Ionian Sea and the landscape grows harsh with calanchi and clay, Tursi is a town you do not expect. At first glance it looks like any other Lucanian inland municipality, with its square, town hall, and modern church. But you only need to look up to notice, on top of a sandstone spur that looms over the modern centre like an island in the sky, a tangle of ancient walls, crumbling arches, and abandoned houses forming an unmistakable silhouette: this is the Rabatana, the quarter founded by the Saracens in the 9th to 10th centuries, one of the most evocative and least-known places in all of Basilicata.

Tursi is the birthplace of Albino Pierro, a poet writing in the Tursitan dialect who was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and reading his verses before visiting the Rabatana is the best way to prepare for the experience: they speak of these streets, this oblique light, this silence heavy with memory.

The Rabatana: a quarter outside time

The name comes from the Arabic rabat, denoting a fortified quarter, a closed and perched borgo. The Saracens settled here in the 9th century, exploiting the naturally defended position of the rocky spur, accessible only through narrow paths at the edge of ravines. After them, Byzantines, Normans, and Aragonese continued to build and layer styles, cultures, and ways of living in an urban fabric that is a palimpsest of Mediterranean civilisations.

Today the Rabatana is largely uninhabited — the last residents left in the 1970s — but not abandoned: a restoration programme has consolidated the main structures and made the quarter visitable; it has been included among the FAI's Luoghi del Cuore. You reach it from the town square via a steep staircase that threads between the houses of the more recent centre, or — and this is the more spectacular route — via a panoramic path skirting the western cliff, with vertiginous views over the calanchi below.

Arriving at the top is a reward that takes your breath away: the alleys of the Rabatana are so narrow that you can touch both walls with your outstretched hands, medieval arches frame glimpses of ivory-coloured calanchi, and the silence is so deep you can hear the wind whistling through the stones. Every closed door, every bricked-up window tells a story of departure — of lives lived here for centuries, then interrupted by modernity.

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore, dating from the Norman period but remodelled in subsequent centuries, is the spiritual heart of the Rabatana. The interior preserves traces of late Gothic frescoes and an atmosphere of stillness that contrasts with the drama of the surrounding landscape. The carved portal, with its pointed arch, is one of the few decorative elements to survive intact. The churchyard, jutting over the precipice like the prow of a stone ship, offers a view that embraces the Sinni valley, the calanchi, and, on clear days, the blue profile of the Ionian Sea on the horizon.

The calanchi and the landscape

Tursi is immersed in the calanchi landscape — those clay formations that millennia of erosion have sculpted into sharp ridges, pinnacles, gullies, and amphitheatres with an almost lunar appearance. A walk in the countryside around the town, especially in the early morning or at sunset when the raking light accentuates the shapes and colours of the clay — from white to grey, from pink to yellow — is an experience without parallel in Italy. The calanchi of Tursi are not as famous as those of Aliano — the village of Carlo Levi's exile — but are equally spectacular and far more solitary: it is easy to find yourself entirely alone in a landscape that seems to belong to another planet.

A few kilometres from the centre, reachable by car along a dirt track through olive groves, stands the Sanctuary of Santa Maria d'Anglona on an isolated panoramic hilltop. The 12th-century Romanesque church, with its carved portal and interior frescoes in the Byzantine and Giottesque tradition, is a hidden gem. The site is often completely deserted, and the view from the hill stretches to the sea. The feast of the Madonna d'Anglona, in September, is the most heartfelt event of the Tursitan community.

Albino Pierro and the poetry of return

Albino Pierro (1916–1995) is Tursi's most illustrious son, a poet who wrote his most intense works in the Tursitan dialect of the Rabatana, a language that mingles traces of Arabic, Greek, and Latin. His birthplace, in the lower part of the town, is visitable and houses a small museum with manuscripts, photographs, and first editions. Reading his poems — available in editions with Italian translation — before or after visiting the Rabatana adds a layer of emotion and understanding that no tourist guide can provide.

What to eat in Tursi

The cuisine of Tursi is that of the Ionian hinterland, where peasant tradition meets the flavours of the nearby sea:

- Ferrazzuoli with goat ragù — long handmade pasta with a sauce of goat meat slow-cooked with tomato and chilli

- Ciammotta — a summer stew of peppers, aubergines, potatoes, and fresh tomatoes, the quintessential garden dish

- Lucanian soppressata — coarse-grain salume, mildly spicy, aged in the cellars of the borgo

- Dried figs stuffed with walnuts — a winter peasant confection, baked with a dusting of chocolate

The restaurants are few and family-run, with menus that change according to season and market availability. In summer some agriturismi in the countryside, among olive trees and calanchi, also open to non-resident guests, offering outdoor lunches with a view.

Getting there and when to go

Tursi lies in the province of Matera, about 110 km from the regional capital and 30 km from the Ionian coast (Policoro, Nova Siri). It is reached by car along the SS653 Sinnica, one of the most scenic roads in Basilicata. The nearest railway station is Policoro-Tursi, on the Ionian Taranto–Reggio Calabria line, from where you continue by car (20 minutes) or shuttle bus with limited timetables.

The best months are April, May, June, September, and October. Summer is hot but the altitude (around 400 m) moderates the worst of the temperatures. Avoid the midday hours in July and August: the stone of the Rabatana becomes an oven and the climb is demanding in full sun. Spring is the ideal moment, when the calanchi are tinged with green and the wheat fields ripple around the borgo.

Practical tips

Wear sturdy shoes with non-slip soles for the ascent to the Rabatana: the stone steps are uneven and can be slippery. Allow two to three hours for the borgo and the Rabatana, plus an hour for the Sanctuary of Anglona. The Rabatana is freely visitable, but check with the town hall or the Pro Loco for any guided visits, which add greatly to your understanding of the place. Combine it with a day at the beach in Policoro for a remarkable landscape contrast — from the lunar calanchi to the blue Ionian Sea in under half an hour by car.