Grassano is a town and ''

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 of Matera The province of Matera ( it, Provincia di Matera; Materano: ) is a province in the Basilicata region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Matera. It has an area of and a total population of 201,133; the city Matera has a population of 61,204. T ...

, in the southern Italian region of

Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

. It is located between the

Bradano The Bradano is a river in the Basilicata and Apulia regions of southern Italy. Its source is Lago Pesole (which is near Forenza and Filiano) in the province of Potenza. The river flows southeast near Monte Torretta, Acerenza, and Oppido Lucano. A ...

and

Basento The Basento (Latin ''Casuentus'') is a river in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. It rises at Monte Arioso in the southern Apennine Mountains, southwest of Potenza in the province of Potenza. The river flows northeast near Pignola and Pote ...

rivers at an elevation ranging from about above sea level. The town proper is from

Matera Matera (, ; Materano: ) is a city in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy. As the capital of the province of Matera, its original settlement lies in two canyons carved by the Gravina River. This area, the Sassi di Matera, is a comple ...

and from the regional capital,

Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one ...

History

Grassano was founded around 1000 AD. The first official document including the town's name is dated 1123, where it is reported as ''castellum quod vocatur Crassanum'' ("castle which is called Crassanum"). In the 15th century, Grassano was officially a rural seat of the

Tricarico Tricarico ( nap, label= Lucano, Trëcàrëchë ; ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Matera, Basilicata, southern Italy. It is home to one of the best preserved medieval historical centres in Lucania. Etymology The origin of the nam ...

's Diocese. Grassano's people later asked King

Ladislaus of Naples Ladislaus the Magnanimous ( it, Ladislao, hu, László; 15 February 1377 – 6 August 1414) was King of Naples from 1386 until his death and an unsuccessful claimant to the kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia. Ladislaus was a skilled political and m ...

for an independence act, and Grassano has remained an independent village since January 19, 1414.

Carlo Levi Carlo Levi () (29 November 1902 – 4 January 1975) was an Italian painter, writer, activist, communist, and doctor. He is best known for his book '' Cristo si è fermato a Eboli'' (''Christ Stopped at Eboli''), published in 1945, a memoir of h ...

was arrested and exiled to Grassano because of his anti-fascist activities. In Grassano, Levi painted about 70 pictures and started discovering southern Italy's problems. He described his experiences in Grassano in his most famous book, ''

Christ Stopped at Eboli ''Christ Stopped at Eboli'' ( it, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli) is a memoir by Carlo Levi, published in 1945, giving an account of his exile from 1935-1936 to Grassano and Aliano, remote towns in southern Italy, in the region of Lucania which is ...

'', which was published after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1945. Anna Briganti, the grandmother of former New York Mayor

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...

, originated in Grassano. By 1905 she was married and well-established in New York.Sam Roberts, "Census Records Shed a New Light on Some of the Mayor's Forebears", ''New York Times'', June 2, 2014 Since 2002, Grassano, with

Aliano Aliano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Matera, which is located about southwest of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Aliano was the setting of Carlo Levi's book ''Christ Stopped at Eboli'' (Italian: ''Cristo si ...

(the second place where Levi was exiled) is an active Literary Park.

References

Cities and towns in Basilicata {{Basilicata-geo-stub