Tolve is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.

History

Remains of pre-historic (

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

) settlements have been found in the nearby. In early historic times, the area was inhabited town of the Lucani, as testified by a tomb of a rich warrior from the 7th or 6th century BC, a temple of Cybele and countryside villas. It is also likely that the Tolve area was abandoned after

Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...

's arrival in southern Italy, as the first following traces of human presence date to the 1st century BC. Tolve is mentioned for the first time in the Lombard Edictum Rothari. In the Middle Ages Tolve grew around a castle with three towers, first under the Byzantines and then under the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

, as part of the county of Tricarico. In 1250 it was held by Galvano, an uncle of King

Manfred of Sicily Manfred (; 123226 February 1266) was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Manfred became regent over the Kingdom of Sicily on b ...

. After the Angevine conquest of the

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...

, it was a center for production of fire weapons starting from the 16th century.

History

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

References