A jewel in the countryside

The name of the town of Pertosa is said to stem from the archaic dialect term "petrusu", referring to the opening of the karst caves that develop underground, and which have made it famous throughout the world.

The first settlement of Pertosa was probably destroyed by Saracen raids, until Benedictine monks built the monastery and church of Santa Maria in the Pertosa area around the 11th century, encouraging the development of a new town. However, a violent earthquake in the first half of the 14th century brought the entire village to the ground, which only began to rise again two centuries later, again at the hands of the Benedictines.