The lakes of Monticchio: Cult and Suggestion

The Monticchio lakes are located in the Vulture reserve, in Basilicata. These two volcanic lakes, one larger and one smaller, are located in the place of the two craters of the ancient Monte Vulture volcano, now extinct for about 700 million years. They represent a suggestive place from a landscape and naturalistic point of view. 

The small lake is also a very important place of worship in Basilicata and beyond, as it is the seat of the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo, built in the eighth century AD. around a cave inhabited by Basilian monks. 

Built on a cave dug into the tuff, the abbey was inhabited by Benedictine monks, who were then succeeded by the Capuchins and in 1782 and finally by the Constantinian military order until 1866. Today the abbey is composed of a convent with several floors , the eighteenth-century church, the chapel of San Michele Arcangelo and the Angel's cave adorned with frescoes dating back to the mid-eleventh century.

The Monticchio lakes develop around a nature reserve, which is home to a very rare and protected species of nocturnal butterfly: the Harting Bramea, discovered in 1963 by the South Tyrolean entomologist Federico Hartig, and is present in Europe only in the Vulture area.

The small lake also offers tourists the opportunity to carry out trekking activities, or to be able to walk surrounded by greenery. 

Furthermore, it will be possible to admire this spectacle of nature directly from the lake, aboard a pedal boat.