Licosa is a southern

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

village and hamlet () of Castellabate, a municipality in the

province of Salerno The province of Salerno () is a province in the Campania region of Italy. It has 1,054,766 inhabitants as of 2025. Geography The largest towns in the province are: Salerno, the capital, which has a population of 131,950; Cava de' Tirreni, Bat ...

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

. As of 2009 its population was of 82.

History

The toponym derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word Λευκωσία (Leukosia, Lefkosía in

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

), meaning "white". A legend says that Leucosia was one of the three mythological sirens met by Ulysses in the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

''. The toponym is therefore related to

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

(, ), capital of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, and to

, a town in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. The area, inhabited since the

Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...

, was settled by

Oenotrians The Oenotrians or Enotrians were an ancient Italic people who inhabited a territory in Southern Italy from Paestum to southern Calabria. By the sixth century BC, the Oenotrians had been absorbed into other Italic tribes. Etymology A likely deri ...

, Lucani (''Leukànoi''),

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

and Romans; as witnessed by the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Leucosia, or Leukothèa. In 846 it was the site of a naval battle between the

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

s and the

Duchy of Naples The Duchy of Naples (, ) began as a Byzantine province that was constituted in the seventh century, in the lands roughly corresponding to the current province of Naples that the Lombards had not conquered during their invasion of Italy in the si ...

with allies. The medieval fief of Licosa, established by the abbot Constabilis in 1123, was part of the

baronage {{English Feudalism In England, the ''baronage'' was the collectively inclusive term denoting all members of the feudal nobility, as observed by the constitutional authority Edward Coke. It was replaced eventually by the term ''peerage''. Origi ...

of '' Castello dell'Abate'', and was administered by the abbots of La Trinità della Cava.

Geography

Licosa is located in northern

Cilento Cilento () is an Italian mountain range (part of the Lucan Apennines), which gives its name to a geographical region of Campania in the central and southern part of the province of Salerno. Is an important tourist area of southern Italy. ...

, by the Tyrrhenian Coast, in a rural area and forest topped by Mount Licosa (326 m). The village, composed of 3 sections named Licosa I, Licosa II and Licosa III, lies nearby a cape named Punta Licosa. In front of the cape, that counts a little harbor, is located the ''Isola Licosa'' (Licosa Island), an islet that hosts a lighthouse. The village, located between

San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestiere (Venice), sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Piazza San Marco, Saint Mar ...

(3 km north) and Ogliastro Marina (4 km south), is 6 km far from Santa Maria, 7 from Castellabate, 8 from Case del Conte, 19 from Agropoli and 73 from

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

Natural environment

Licosa's territory belongs to the National Park of Cilento and its coastline, characterized by the

flysch Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building ep ...

rocks, is part of the

marine protected area A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity ...

Santa Maria di Castellabate Santa Maria di Castellabate (Cilentan dialect, Cilentan: ''A Marina'') is a southern Italy, Italian town and hamlet (''frazione'') of Castellabate, a municipality in the province of Salerno, Campania. It is the most populated ''frazione'' of its ...

.Marine Protected Area of Santa Maria di Castellabate
(parks.it) The territory, far from urban settlements, is surrounded by

maquis shrubland 220px, Low maquis in Corsica 220px, High ''macchia'' in Sardinia ( , , ) or ( , ; often in Italian; , ; ; ; ) is a savanna-like shrubland biome in the Mediterranean region, typically consisting of densely growing evergreen shrubs. Maquis ...

(''macchia'') and forest.

Gallery

File:Pallazzo granito.JPG, Palace Granito, nearby the island File:Vedettamtlicosa.JPG, View of Mount Licosa trail to the coastal tower ''Semaforo'' File:Flysch del Cilento a Licosa (Castellabate).jpg, The flysch by the coast

References

External links