The Province of Potenza ( it, Provincia di Potenza; Potentino: ) is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

in the Basilicata region of southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Its capital is the city of Potenza.

Geography

It has an area of and a total population of 369,538 (as of 2017). There are 100 ''

comuni The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (singular:

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

) in the province (see Comuni of the Province of Potenza).The ''comuni'' of the Province of Potenza (provincial website)
/ref> The province is characterized by various natural landscapes, ranging from the mountain lakes of

Monticchio Monticchio is an Italian hamlet (''frazione'') belonging to the municipalities of Rionero in Vulture and Atella, in the Province of Potenza, Basilicata. The village is divided into three zones: Monticchio Laghi (part of Atella), Monticchio Bagn ...

, the Lucan forest, the

Monte Sirino Massiccio del Sirino is a massif of Basilicata, southern Italy. The highest peak is Monte Papa, at 2,005 m. It is located in the southern tip of the Appennino Lucano - Val d'Agri - Lagonegrese National Park The Appennino Lucano - Val d'Agr ...

massif, the large

National Park of Pollino Pollino National Park ( Italian: ''Parco Nazionale del Pollino'') is an Italian national park in the southern peninsula, in the provinces of Cosenza, Matera and Potenza. Its named from the homonymous mountain massif Pollino. The park is home of t ...

(shared by

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

) and the Tyrrhenian coast of

Maratea Maratea (; nap, Marathia, label= Marateota ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of Basilicata, in the province of Potenza. It is the only ''comune'' of the region on the Tyrrhenian coast, and is known as "the Pearl of the Tyrrhenian". Owing to t ...

. The largest city is Potenza, followed by

Melfi Melfi ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Vulture area of the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Geographically, it is midway between Naples and Bari. In 2015 it had a population of 17,768. Geography On ...

History

In 272 BC the province was conquered by the Romans. The new rulers named the region

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Bruttiu ...

. In the 11th century, the area became part of the

Duchy of Apulia The County of Apulia and Calabria (), later the Duchy of Apulia and Calabria (), was a Norman state founded by William of Hauteville in 1042 in the territories of Gargano, Capitanata, Apulia, Vulture, and most of Campania. It became a duchy whe ...

, which was at the time ruled by the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...

. From the 13th century, it was part of the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

, though Potenza was ruled by local vassals. In 1861, the province was unified with the rest of Italy in the newly formed

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

. The region has suffered from numerous

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s in historic times, and is still a

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

ally active area.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Potenza