ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

 

Castle
The castle was built during the Lombards' period and very little remains still visible. Time, earthquakes and neglect have destroyed it.

          

Some of the Castle ruins still visible

Archaic Era
Parts of walls of Carissanum, the village of the archaic era, were still visible until a few years ago. Tombs found during archaeological excavations of the last century are no longer visible. Materials from those excavations are in the museums of Avellino, Battipaglia and Salerno.

In these tombs were also found human skeletons which are now conserved in the Museo Nazionale di Antropologia, University of Florence. Often, ancient human skeletons are examined and studied to determine the health conditions of the people, the types of violent acts they may have been subjected to, their activities, types and variety of foods used, their economic conditions, etc. Some of the skeletons from Cairano have been the subject of such studies, together with those from other parts of Italy (7).

           

Tomb 15 just opened (left) and clay container from Tomb 23 (right)

Ruins resulting from the 1980 earthquake, passage of time, and emigration
Almost all the buildings were damaged or completely destroyed by the 1980 earthquake. Not all of them have been rebuilt, especially in the area of the Castle because it is considered unstable. Many of those that have been rebuilt have not maintained the original architecture. However, they have incorporated the original marble or stone portals.

Time and the great post-WW II emigration have contributed to the almost total abandon of the caves (grotte) and of the hay storage buildings (pagliere) of Cairano, which now are in ruins. They are located in Via delle Grotte, North-Northeast of the town. The "grotte" are on the high side of the street. They were dug out in the side of the mountain sometimes in the distant past, refinished with frontal walls and doors and used as wine cellars. The "pagliere" face the "grotte" on the low side of the street and are certainly more recent than the "grotte". They were used by the bakeries of Cairano to store straw used to fire their ovens. Once, there were up to six bakeries with straw fired ovens. They are all gone now. The only bakery is the Fornaio Ecologico, a modern and efficient bakery with electric ovens.

The first time visitor finds the Via delle Grotte beautiful, interesting and mysterious. The Cairanese emigrant, on the other hand, that visits after many years is overtaken by a great nostalgia: he can still see the lines of mules and donkeys loaded with just harvested grapes, still smells the aroma of the fermenting must, and remembers when as a boy he would jump with his friends in the straw just unloaded to pat it down!

          

 

          

Ruins caused by the 1980 earthquake, by time and by the emigration

 

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