Every design for Battipaglia

Battipaglia was founded as a refuge: in the nineteenth century the Bourbon authorities picked the site for an agricultural colony to house families who had survived the Basilicata earthquake. It lies on the northern edge of the Sele Plain, where the last hills of the Monti di Eboli meet flat alluvial land crossed by the Tusciano river and old reclamation canals.

The feeling here is of open space and working land. A sea breeze comes in from the west by late morning and a mountain breeze drifts down at night, and all around spreads one of the most intensively farmed areas of southern Italy: artichokes, tomatoes, fruit and rocket, and the buffalo herds behind the town's famous mozzarella. Allied bombing almost razed the town in the Second World War; it was rebuilt quickly.

The picture that stays is a simple one: flat fields running towards the sea, a buffalo farm at the edge of town, and the small castle of Il Castelluccio standing apart from the modern streets.