Italy's most dramatic village — carved into Dolomite-style cliffs in Basilicata
Castelmezzano is a village of 800 people tucked into a fold of the Dolomiti Lucane — an extraordinary landscape of sharp dolomite pinnacles in the deep south of Italy that feels like the Dolomites transported to Basilicata. The village clings to the rock faces above the Basento river gorge, its stone houses merging with the cliff, and is connected to the even more spectacular neighbouring village of Pietrapertosa by the Volo dell'Angelo — the Angel's Flight, a zip line across the gorge at 120km/h that is one of the most dramatic adventure activities in Italy.
Castelmezzano was founded in the 9th century by Saracen invaders who carved the original settlement into the rock faces of the Dolomiti Lucane — the cave dwellings (sassi-style, like Matera but less well-known) are still visible behind the modern village. The village was part of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and later the Spanish Kingdom of Naples, and its isolation in the mountains of Basilicata protected it from the waves of migration that depopulated much of the surrounding region in the 20th century. Both Castelmezzano and neighbouring Pietrapertosa are members of the I Borghi più belli d'…