Teora
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Teora is a little town in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. It has 1,571 inhabitants. The patron is Saint Nicholas (remembered on August 13 and on December 6).
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[edit] History
The village of Teora had origin at time of the Sanniti as an agricultural and military centre. Reportedly, in Roman age the tribuno della plebe Milone died there during the civil war between Cesar and Pompeo. In a Privilegio of 1200, granted by Pope Innocenzo III to Pantaleone, archbishop of Conza, is Teora cited for the first time with the name of Tugurium Biarium. During the feudal age, in 1322, a man named Filippo was lord of Teora; later on, in 1376, its domain was acquired by the Earl Giacomo Arcuccio and subsequently it passed to the Gesualdo Family. From the 1676 Teora belonged to the Mirelli Princes until 1806. Three earthquakes have deeply marked the history of the Teora: 1694, 1732, 1980; the last one of which has destroyed the historical and cultural identity. After the difficult years of the reconstruction, Teora has today started to be again the pleasant place that it used to be. 25 years after the earthquake, Teora was awarded the Gold medal to the civil merit.
[edit] Culture
[edit] Squaqqualacchiun'
Typical masque connected to the day of Saint Anthony (January 17), the first day of carnival. It is also represented at the Museum of Popular Traditions of Caserta.
[edit] Teora, the land of serenades
Following a centuries-old tradition, in the evening preceding a wedding, the groom sings a serenade to his bride. Accompanied by local singers, he usually stands under the balcony of her bedroom, awaiting a positive answer to his love. After a few minutes, the bride is expected to switch on the light and go out on the balcony, in sign of her “yes”. Usually the evening continues with music and songs in the bride's house. Every year, in the first half of August, the Festival of Serenades takes place: five Teorese girls stand on five geranium decorated balconies, each waiting for her loved one. While some professional menestrelli play their love songs, “Romeo” climbs a rope ladder to reach his “Juliet” and bring her a red rose. A timid and chaste kiss is the prize for the serenata. Rumor has it that "Romeos" take advantage of the event to formulate real wedding proposals to their Juliet.
[edit] Pizza of Saint Martin
Potato pie generally eaten on November 11, (day of Saint Martin). According to the tradition, a little coin is hidden in the pie: the one who finds it in his or her portion, has the right to decide the menu of the party that takes place on November 21 (calle Cummit).
[edit] Monuments
[edit] Fountain of Monte
Fountain, said also of the Dead men, has much far origins that are made to go back to XII the century when the Church of Conza was indicated from Pope Callisto II like blessed necropoli and f here journeyed wagons directed to Conza in order to bury corpses. Fountain, completely remade in the centuries, today is composed by a simple structure building realized with regular frames to which is leaned a simple bathtub in stone.
[edit] Church of Saint Nicholas
The precise date of building of the church is not known since all documents were lost in a fire in 1690. Probably the church has been many times reconstructed many times, and the present structure, with a 16th century appearance, was not reached until the 20th century. Four times the church has been destroyed from earthquakes (1604, 1694, 1732, 1980). Today of the majestic structure remains only a spectral fragment of the a[dr’s wall, the skeleton of the greater altar and the bases in stone of the ancient columns. In the new church, rebuilt after the 1980 earthquake , includes pieces coming from the destroyed Church and the Congregation di Morti, also destroyed by the earthquake of 1980.
[edit] Corona flour mill
Situated to the margins of the historical center of the country, the water flour mill belonged to the noble family Crown, receives the visitors that come from the north-west. A sure dating of the building is not known but it can, with good approximation, place the building at the end of the '700. The activity of the flour mill has been concluded in ‘50 years and the earthquake of November 1980 has destroyed, then, the central part of the construction.
[edit] Fountain (public washhouse) of Piano
Situated to the west of the country, the construction in clear stone shows a rectangular prospect subdivided in three zones from pillars. The water comes from five masks in sto ne in order and goes into three bathtubs leaned to the wall. In the rear zone of the construction, there are situated public washhouses. On the wall a lapide is embedded; it is the most ancient than Teora and ago reference to 1728.
[edit] Stone of the civil weddings
The Congrega public square is so called because there was the Congrega little church. A time, in that one piazzetta, there was a tree under which it had been placed a stone table on which it came written up public documents and made the civil ritual of the wedding. It is unknown in which time the civil ritual of the wedding came celebrated in public and on this public square; it is known, however, the ritual phrase, conversed, than the spouses recited to fine ritual. The table is constituted from two stone pillars with on a thick slab 20 cm.
[edit] Connected page
