Their origins are not safe, but at Roman time already it was a prosperous center; destroyed several times by earthquakes, in 1860 it was the first continental city that was rebelled against the Borbones.
They deserve a visit: the churches of San Francisco (and Santa Maria of the Tomb (Chiesa I gave to S. Francesco and I gave to S. Maria of the Sepolcro), both of century XIII, and the older románica church of San Miguel (Chiesa I gave to S. Michele). To 30 km the Castle arises from Lagopessole, fact to construct by Federico II of Suevia, but left incomplete at the moment of its death. Potenza is the capital of regiòn Basilicata call and is born of the high valley of rìo Basento throughout the back of a hill of màs of three hundred meters of altitude above sea level. It is between the twelve lucanas cities that in century IV a.c., during the samnìticas wars and the war against Pirro, were put against Taranto and Rome. His orìgenes for some dates from perìodo of colonizaciòn in Italy of the South and for others, however, they talk about to the Roman streets like penetraciòn in the Lucania of century II a.c. Verosìmilmente, posiciòn equidistant between the Greek colonies of Poseidonia and Metaponto must have given to the city of Potenza the flavor of old civilizaciòn Greek.
Strabone and Pliny pongon Potenza between màs old free and indipendientes cities of the Lucania, and although are the news of its currencies or other no findings to really verify this autonomìa, she in effect debiò to be “frees” until Rome not empezò its polìtica of expansiòn.
But the sabidurìa of Rome do not podìan to underestimate posiciòn geogràfica and strategic of this city, crossroads of the Mediterràneo. The city siguiò the vicissitudes of the Empire until its decay, and its good luck empeorò until ruinous perìodo of the invasions bàrbaras. Then the Bizantinos which they gave to regiòn the name of Basilicata of basilici or governors arrived allì who administered it; and later the Normandos conquered the city and all the Basilicata joining it to the Calabria and Sicily creating the fort Kingdom that uniò all Italy of the South.