Why go
Accettura stands at about eight hundred metres in the heart of the province of Matera, with woodland on every side. The municipality lists its neighbours as Calciano, Oliveto Lucano, San Mauro Forte, Stigliano, Cirigliano, Pietrapertosa and Campomaggiore, and its territory belongs to the Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane regional park, a protected area that joins Turkey oak forests, wind-carved sandstone and small hill towns.
Most people know the name because of the Maggio, the tree ritual dedicated to Saint Julian that every year joins a great Turkey oak to a holly crown. Yet the town is more than its festival: its old quarter has carved stone doorways and churches holding wooden statues, there is a museum devoted to tree rituals and, just outside, the Montepiano wood, which the municipality calls one of the finest Turkey oak forests in Basilicata.
Come here to understand how a mountain community built its identity around the forest, and for quiet walks, silence and a country cooking of handmade pasta and local cured meats.
Sources: Comune di Accettura — Turismo · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Accettura · Comune di Accettura — Bosco di Montepiano · Italia.it — Accettura e museo dei culti arborei
History
The municipal and park websites place the first human presence in the area between the sixth and fourth centuries BC. The park notes that a fortified Lucanian town stood on nearby Monte Croccia, ringed by more than two kilometres of walls built from squared blocks, and that Bronze Age cinerary urns were found at Tempa Cortaglia near Accettura. The town's name first appears in a bishop's bull of 1060.
According to the municipality, the present town gathered the people of scattered rural settlements such as Gallipoli, Cortaglia and Costa la Raja. Destroyed by fire in 1272, it was rebuilt at the wish of Charles of Anjou and then passed through several feudal families, ending with the Spinelli and the abolition of feudalism. In the nineteenth century the forest came back to the fore: the park records the forestry corps settling in the former convent at Palazzo, along with ranger stations, nurseries and the rural hamlets of Valmiletta and Valdienne.
The cult of Saint Julian, the patron linked to the Maggio, appears in the municipal archive from 1725, the Basilicata Region reports. The anthropologist Giovanni Battista Bronzini devoted many studies to the festival.
Sources: Comune di Accettura — Turismo · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Storia del territorio · Regione Basilicata — Accettura, la Festa del Maggio
What to see
The old town gathers around the ancient Scarrone quarter, which the municipality describes as rich in churches and mansions, with many carved stone doorways from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The mother church of San Nicola already existed in the sixteenth century and keeps a bell cast in 1611, a fifteenth-century wooden crucifix, a statue of Saint Anthony Abbot from the same century and eighteenth-century statues of Saint Julian, Saint Philomena and Saint Paschal. The Annunziata church, rebuilt in Baroque style, holds a sixteenth-century wooden Madonna and Child.
The places of the ritual are part of the townscape: the amphitheatre, the small square where the Maggio is raised and the one where oak and crown meet. The park mentions the open-air theatre near the town hall, with the festival painted on a wall by the Romanian artist Costantino Udrov.
The Museum of Tree Rituals, built in a panoramic spot along the Maggio route, holds paintings, photographs and films of the festival, texts on the rites and tools of rural life; the park advises contacting the municipality to visit. Further out, the Palazzo visitor centre occupies an old monastic site with the church of Santa Chiara, a natural history museum and a botanical garden.
Sources: Comune di Accettura — Centro storico · Comune di Accettura — Chiesa Madre di San Nicola · Comune di Accettura — Chiesa dell'Annunziata · Comune di Accettura — Anfiteatro, piazzetta dell'erezione e dell'incontro · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Accettura · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Museo dei Culti Arborei · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Centro attrezzato Palazzo · Italia.it — Accettura e museo dei culti arborei
Food and wine
Accettura's table comes from the woods and pastures. The town lies within the area of three Slow Food Presidia of the Matera hills. Pezzente della Montagna materana is a country sausage made from the humblest pork cuts, seasoned with powdered Senise pepper, wild fennel and garlic; it is made in the cold months and eaten sliced or in sauces. Casiello is a small, round goat's cheese shaped by hand like a cacioricotta: fresh it goes with tomato salad, aged it is grated over pasta. Oliva infornata di Ferrandina, made from Majatica olives that are scalded, salted and dried, is also produced in the Montagna Materana towns, Accettura included.
The forest matters for milk too. The municipality points out, at the edge of Montepiano, the drove road used for transhumance and the old farmhouse where milk from Podolica cows was processed, the breed behind Basilicata's caciocavallo podolico.
During the Maggio, the park explains, the festival combines shared work with music and food. In autumn the municipality holds Il Borgo, an event in the old town devoted to art and food.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Pezzente della Montagna materana · Fondazione Slow Food — Casiello della Montagna materana · Fondazione Slow Food — Oliva infornata di Ferrandina · Comune di Accettura — Bosco di Montepiano · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Cultura e tradizioni · Comune di Accettura — Il Borgo, evento autunnale
Things to do
The Montepiano wood spreads between 700 and 1,200 metres. The municipality describes a walk that starts from the rural hamlet of Valmiletta, a group of eighteenth-century stone houses, and crosses fields, pastures and dry-stone walls to the Pietra del Corvo, a sandstone spur overlooking the upper Salandrella valley. In the wood, old paths and forestry tracks lead through columnar Turkey oaks up to thirty metres tall, past the old snow pit and the drove road. Paths are not always clearly marked: check before setting out and, if possible, go with guides or with the CAI Matera outings the municipality mentions.
The Gallipoli Cognato forest, which the park puts at over four thousand hectares, offers more routes. From the Palazzo centre start numbered trails, a plant trail with a medicinal herb garden and botanical garden, and a treetop adventure park. The Croccia trail climbs to the Monte Croccia anthropological reserve, with the remains of Lucanian walls; the Tempa Castello trail leads to the ruins of the medieval village of Gallipoli.
Cyclamen, anemones and wild orchids flower in the clearings, and the park records wolves, badgers, porcupines and many birds of prey.
Sources: Comune di Accettura — Bosco di Montepiano · Comune di Accettura — Borgo Valmiletta e Serra del Garbo · Comune di Accettura — Turismo · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — La foresta di Gallipoli Cognato · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Vivi il Parco · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Centro attrezzato Palazzo
When to go
The high point is the Maggio festival, held over the days of Pentecost, between late May and June depending on the calendar. The Basilicata Region and the park describe its stages: the Turkey oak, chosen in the Montepiano wood and nearly thirty metres tall, is hauled into town by about fifty pairs of Podolica oxen; the holly crown is carried on shoulders from the Gallipoli Cognato forest, a route of about fifteen kilometres with stops at springs, amid songs and bagpipes. In town the two trees are joined, the Maggio is raised during the procession of Saint Julian and, hung with gifts, waits for young men to climb it. Check each year's dates with the municipality.
Outside the festival, spring and autumn suit the woods best: the park notes flowers from early spring into autumn, and trails are more pleasant in mild weather. In autumn the municipality holds Il Borgo, devoted to art and food in the old town.
At this altitude, summer days are cooler than on the plains. Winter is quiet and can be cold: visitors then find a peaceful town, better suited to a cultural visit than to long walks.
Sources: Regione Basilicata — Accettura, la Festa del Maggio · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Cultura e tradizioni · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — La foresta di Gallipoli Cognato · Comune di Accettura — Il Borgo, evento autunnale
Getting there and around
By car, Accettura is reached from the SS407 Basentana, the highway that runs from the Mediterranean motorway at Sicignano to Metaponto on the Ionian coast. The municipality recommends the Campomaggiore exit and then the Accettura-Gallipoli provincial road, or the SS277 from the Scalo di Garaguso-Grassano-Tricarico exit. The town is about fifty kilometres from Potenza and eighty from Matera.
Without a car, the park points to Potenza station and, from Bari, the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane regional line to Matera; from there regional buses continue to the individual park towns. The nearest airports the park mentions are Bari Palese and Naples Capodichino. Bus links to inland towns are few: check them in advance, or plan on a car to move between Accettura, Montepiano and the Palazzo centre.
In town you walk: the old quarter has narrow lanes and the municipality warns that traffic may be restricted during festivals and processions. Montepiano is reached on the former SS277 provincial road, and the municipality advises checking road conditions before setting off.
Sources: Comune di Accettura — Turismo · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Come arrivare · Comune di Accettura — Centro storico · Comune di Accettura — Bosco di Montepiano
Where to stay
The park's accommodation list, searchable by town, includes farm stays, bed and breakfasts, guest rooms, holiday homes and a few hotels spread across Accettura and the other towns of the protected area. The park suggests choosing a stay by its setting too, whether old town, countryside or forest edge.
Sleeping in Accettura lets you enjoy the town in its quiet hours, after day visitors leave, and reach the Montepiano trails early. A farm stay in the countryside suits those looking for farm produce and silence; a room in the old town is handy during the festival, when everything happens on foot. During the Maggio demand rises sharply, so book well ahead, including in nearby towns such as Castelmezzano, Pietrapertosa or Oliveto Lucano.
For practical information on trails, events and lodging, the park's visitor centre at Palazzo provides material and assistance. Apulica does not list specific properties here: choices are made case by case, weighing access, season and the kind of trip.
Sources: Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Dove dormire · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Vivi il Parco · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Centro attrezzato Palazzo
Nearby
Accettura sits at the centre of a small network of park towns. Towards Potenza, the sandstone spires of the Piccole Dolomiti Lucane frame Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa, linked by trails, roads and, in the warmer months, by the Volo dell'Angelo, a steel cable you ride suspended from a pulley. Oliveto Lucano, a few kilometres away, also celebrates a Maggio for its patron Saint Cyprian, a sign of a tree tradition shared across the area.
On Monte Croccia, inside a state anthropological reserve, you can see the remains of the fortified Lucanian town and the rock complex of Pietra della Mola, which some scholars read as an ancient solar observatory. The park also mentions the rural hamlets of Valmiletta and Serra del Garbo, on the road to Stigliano, among the smallest in Basilicata.
With more days, combine Accettura with a day among the badlands of Aliano or in Matera, joining woodland, clay and stone in one journey through inland Basilicata.
Sources: Italia.it — Castelmezzano · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Cultura e tradizioni · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Accettura · Italia.it — Riserva naturale antropologica Monte Croccia · Comune di Accettura — Borgo Valmiletta e Serra del Garbo
Local tourist information
Local tourist offices help with opening times, events and transport on the day.
- Centro accoglienza visitatori del Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Centro attrezzato «Palazzo» · Località Palazzo, 75011 Accettura (MT) · +39 347 095 7967 · info@parcogallipolicognato.it · Official website
Source: Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Centro attrezzato Palazzo · Parco Gallipoli Cognato Piccole Dolomiti Lucane — Accettura · checked on
Where to stay
In the municipality of Accettura the national database of the Ministry of Tourism lists 5 accommodation businesses with a verified CIN code: 1 hotels, 1 other licensed accommodation and 3 other types such as B&Bs and private rentals.
Sources: Ministero del Turismo – Banca Dati Strutture Ricettive (dashboard pubblica), 2026-10-12
YOUR JOURNEY
How to shape a journey here
A town visit can start with the museum and continue into the landscape. The ritual deserves a cultural reading even when a journey does not coincide with the festival.
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