Valva (SA)

Valve is an Italian town of 1,767 inhabitants in the province of Salerno in Campania in the Alta Valle del Sele. Located on the eastern slopes of Mount Marzano, near the Serra delle Rose, Valva dominates the valley of the Sele spaces delimited by the chain of mountains Picentinis. The territory largely mountainous, is rich in flora and fauna. The human presence in the area is attested by some artifacts from the Greek era and numerous tombstones and memorials dating from the first century after Christ. Tradition has it that the first inhabitants of Valva are territorially belonged to the ancient Ursento. In the Middle Ages, even in the absence of reliable evidence, it can be seen that its territory was included in the Gastaldato Conza. After the victory of the Normans, princes of Salerno, Valva came under their influence and was donated to the Soldier Gozzolino. In the first half of the twelfth century the village was granted to Gradalone of Valva, a descendant of Gozzolino, in whose family it seems that the estate is owned by the abolition of feudalism in 1806. In the modern age Valva followed the fate of the locations Salerno. Among the most famous characters of the place to be counted Ottavio Valva, residents of Jerusalem castle of the Knights of St. John on the island of Rhodes, and Joseph Maria Valva, superintendent of roads and public works, who played in the Salerno vast work of territorial reorganization. During the Second World War, the valley and the castle were were changed to be in the hospital and district general Kesselring and after the landing of Salerno, became a point of contact of the Anglo-American allied troops. Valve, is an interesting example of enhancement of the historic centers reconstructed in the earthquake of 1980. From the square of Remembrance, where you will find the entrance to the Villa d’Ayala, on the northern side caratteriustiche through the narrow streets of the old town, you arrive in front of Palazzo Foselli, located a short distance from the mother church.

La St. James Church has three entrances with baroque portals in 1737. In the tympanum of the central one is a sixteenth-century sculpture in relief depicting the Eternal Father. The three-nave interior preserves well-made inlaid marble altars with statues of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Interesting are also a fresco depicting the Holy Family and the wooden bust of St. James, preserved in a glass case. Separated from the body of the church is the bell tower at two levels, dating back to the sixteenth century. Linked to the Palace Marcelli, which was hosted by the historian Lorenzo Giustiniani Bourbon, is the Chapel of St. Anthony. It is a building with a single nave altar inlaid monochrome of the eighteenth century dominated by a niche decorated with fine stucco with scrolls and cherubs. The chapel holds the seventeenth-century wooden busts of St. Anthony of Padua and St. Blaise, and the eighteenth century statue of St. Vitus Martyr.

VILLA D’AYALA – VALVA

La Villa extends for about seventeen acres and the whole walled round about. It is accessed from the Piazza del Calvario, through a large iron gate, housed in a turreted tower style normanno.Lungo the avenue that leads from the entrance of the ordeal of the castle, encountered two large statues of heroes; The first, set in a majestic arc represents the hero Meleager of Aetolia the second, representing Hercules, who years ago as a result of an act of vandalism was beheaded Beautiful are the gardens and the variety of flowers and for the life of them along the course of the seasons. It is surprising an amphitheater made of boxwood ordered park from which sprout many spectators sitting in their marble posti.Al center, top, is the royal box where sit the important characters are numerous and deep caves. In one of them, called the “monsters”, you can see statues look awful, in addition to Vulcan, who beat the red-hot iron on the anvil. In front of the porch that protects the entrance, there are five statues of white marble depicting the Arts: Music, Dance, Singing, Painting and Sculpture.

Scenario characterized by unusual beauty ancestral Villa d ‘Ayala. Wrapped in a magical silence, presents itself to visitors as an almost unreal, isolated from the outside world. The park covers an area of ​​seventeen acres, with its forests is a real green lung.

Curated with masterly art, the Villa expresses in his sculptural fantastic creatures, in caves, fountains, hedges of boxwood pruned with expertise, all the sophistication of its creator: the Marquis D. Giuseppe Maria Valva. This artistic heritage dates back to the late eighteenth century, but it was later, around 1867, that the Villa acquired greater splendor, through the work of the Marquis Francesco d ‘Ayala Valva.

The Villa is surrounded by walls around the perimeter of the ‘height of about three meters. The park entrance opens into a small neo-Gothic tower with a gate and dominated by Ghibelline. On arouses the avenue you can see the Chapel of Our Lady of Philermos, where annually the Knights of Malta celebrate a commemorative mass. It then meets the “Coffee house”, with a portico of six Gothic arches embellished by sculptures of Pacchiane, representing women in costume Lucan. At one time, in front, admired a “round pond containing a castle having the turrets at the four corners.” Currently the pond, described dall’annalista De Meo, no longer exists and in place of the castle you can admire a fountain adorned with the figures of Diana and a bronze deer, while all around is the garden at ‘Italian, inhabited by marble seasons of’ year. Down the avenue a turret holds the marble statue of Hercules as well.

Every corner of the villa is a mere surprise for the visitor. And so it is that in the course of the journey you will be enchanted with the presence of a neo-classical amphitheater, consisting of manicured lawns in stages, where dozens of marble busts of men and women, waiting silently that the empty stage the show begin. It is surprising still an underground passage, culminating in a cave, where there is the statue of Vulcan that beats the hot iron on the anvil.

Here and there, as hidden in the green, peep out of the true masterpieces of sculpture: fantastic stone creatures, gods, nymphs and cherubs. Once in a square-shaped semicircle meet the statues of the Muses, in front of which opens the door to the courtyard garden, enclosed by a wall, with boulevards that draw vaguely harp, a spa center with human figures and fish . The area is crowned by dozens of marble busts. Two paths lead to the porch of the castle with marble bas-reliefs by Donatello Gabrielli. So, magically inserted in the magnificence of the large park, is its splendid castle. It is located in the old baronial mansion. The complex, to the Norman origin of the house Marquis, reflects the architectural style of the time. It ‘s all embattled North and the point is adjacent to a large tower called “fort”.

The trees, many of which are imported from different parts of the world and here well acclimatized, the tall trees, the botanical gardens from different floral patterns, hedges trimmed into geometric shapes make the landscape lush. Among the vastness and rarity of tree species, fountains-time with a thousand shades of water-, and lanes, stand-scattered with extreme good taste – precious statues. To complete the overview of the paths of laurel, the tall plane trees, holm oak trees willing to walls, the Italian and English gardens that make the place a real labyrinth of art.