Pisciotta

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Pisciotta

Country	Italy
Region	Campania
Province	Salerno (SA)
Mayor	{{{mayor}}}

Elevation	AMSL m
Area	30 km²
Population
- Total (as of 2001)	3,031
- Density	101/km²
Time zone	CET, UTC+1
Coordinates	40°7′N 15°14′E
Gentilic	Pisciottani
Dialing code	0974
Postal code	84066
Frazioni	Caprioli, Marina di Pisciotta, Rodio
Patron	St. Vitus
- Day	June 15
Website: Pisciotta website

Pisciotta, Italy

Pisciotta is a town and commune in Campania, Italy, part of the province of Salerno.

[edit] History

According to legend, Trojans escaping from the fire and the destruction of their city, Troy, founded Sires. Some of the inhabitants of the city later advanced westards, following the vast valley of the Sinni river, up to the lake and to the Sirino mountain (from which they took the name), near present-day Lagonegro, where they founded the city of Siruci (now called Seluce). From here, they went to the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the beach of the Gulf of Policastro. Here they founded the colony of Pixous. This event is shown in a rare series of ancient coins, in archaic characters, with the names of Sirinos and Pixoes inscripted, referring respectively, to the populations of the two cities of Sires and Pixous, respectively. The name "Pixous" comes from the root "PYX", which derives from the Greek word for boxwood (present in the coat of arms of Pisciotta town hall).

In the year 194 BCE, the Greek word pixous became corrupted to the Latin Buxentum.

In 915 CE, when the town was plundered and burnt by the Saracens of Agropoli, the town's name had already changed to Policastro. Many of the fleeing Bussetani went beyond the promontory of Palinuro, where they founded a small village that they called Pixoctum, in memory of their lost town. Over the years this changed to Pixocta, then Pissocta, and finally Pisciotta.

The name of Pisciotta is found in the Catalogus Baronum (1144). The year 1464 marked for the country a very important development, when the survivors of Molpa, following the destruction of their village, were sheltered in Pisciotta. Until the abolition of feudality in 1806, Pisciotta was owned by the Caracciolos (1270), the Sanseverinos (15th century), the Pappacodas (from 1590).