In the heart of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park, nestled on the southern slopes of Mount Fulgenti, lies Laurito, at an altitude of 475 m above sea level, nestled among tall chestnut trees and centuries-old olive trees.
The name Laurito recalls multiple stories and suggestions about its origins, giving life to a complex puzzle among whose pieces we find the great history and the small stories that identify these places, and interesting toponyms that bring to mind the populations that settled in these territories they settled in the past; in particular, the spread of the settlements of Italian-Greek monks who came to settle in the Lower Cilento area, giving life to hermitages around which monasteries and villages arose.
There are no confirmed sources on the foundation of Laurito that date back to before 947, the year in which, as reported by the historian Pietro Ebner, the words "in loco Laurito" appear on a deed of sale of goods.
It therefore seems likely that the name Laurito refers to the Greek word "Laura", a term used to indicate the Byzantine monastic organization. This consisted of a more or less large grouping of monastic cells distinct from each other, but with a common church to which a priest who administered the sacraments was linked.
It was probably in the area adjacent to the Utria stream, where today we find the ruins of the Chapel of San Vito, that a group of monks who traveled up the Mingardo river came to settle, giving life to a first settlement. Subsequently, after crossing the watercourse, the village developed into what is today identifiable as the oldest part of the town and where we find the most representative place of the village, the thirteenth-century Church of San Filippo d'Agira.
The cult of the Saint to whom the building is dedicated was most likely introduced by a group of religious people from Agira in Sicily, following the abandonment of those lands after the invasion of the Saracens.
Today Laurito, guarding the Mingardo Valley, presents itself to our eyes as an elegant Cilento village in which the noble palaces with magnificent portals alternate with spaces intended for the community, squares and churches, introduced by a road that crosses it still covered with the ancient pavement of the past.
A place full of points of interest that we invite you to discover together.
