Farmhouse, Hunting Reserve, Basilicata, Italy

The Neapolitan Horse  
Il  Cavallo del Sud

The passion for horses around here has ancient roots.
Among the properties of the company, not far from Sant'Arcangelo, you can admire magnificent and ancient ruins of the "Palace of Riding" which dates from the fourteenth century.
Anyone visiting the remains of the Riding School, realizes immediately that they are not in front of the classic medieval castle, located on top of the hills, in contrast, it is located in the valley, woods, gardens and orchards, without the typical characteristics of the farm.
The Palace of Riding in a description of Saint Archangel, that comes to us from a manuscript of Mandello di Diano, in a chronicle of the sixteenth century. is described in this way: "... the earth is seen S.Archangelo though between cliffs, situated on level ground with good habitationi, and an order well thought-out, is that the sooner resembles City, that land of mountains .... . the people there are numerous that even the cotton wool that collects receives great benefit, not missing nobelmen that comfortably live off their income, showing all the occurrences courteous and polite. in the lower part of the district to the bank of the river Acre is seen a sumptuous building called the Palace, there fabricato of: Principles of Stigliano, masters of the room and place to shelter the breed of their horses, while not popular in this province but throughout the kingdom ... "

This Cavallerizza, famous throughout the kingdom, flourished for nearly four centuries at the same time of the emergence of one of the historic breeds of horses in Europe, that of horses "Neapolitan" which was one of the most important and sought-after of the Old Continent.
These horses were called in Europe "Neapolitans" because they originate in the Kingdom of Naples, and were reared in the various provinces of the Kingdom including Basilicata. The breed Napolitana like that Spanish and Portuguese, before the advent of the Arab race, for its beauty made of elegance, strength, docility and handling was one of the most widely used throughout Europe. For over four hundred years that is, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century this breed represented an example of perfection in the selection, and his blood was used, the same as that which occurred from the eighteenth century onwards for thoroughbred Arab East and the subsequent Anglo-derivatives Arab, for purposes ameliorative by crosses with other breeds with the objective to embellish the appearance and strengthen the structure. The breeds of Persia, Lipizzaner, and Hanover were created using Neapolitans stallions and mares.

IIt is so with the words "Palace" in the Atlas of Magini (cartographer '500), in another of Jansonium in 1647 of the "Terra di Bari et Basilicata", and still other maps.
(See C. Cudemo, "The Riding of Sant'Arcangelo" Ed Hermes - Potenza 2000)