Cuccaro Vetere is a small Cilento town clinging to the top of a small mountain in the heart of Cilento. The name of the town derives from the Greek Cocheros, which means "hilltop" although Cuccaro certainly has more ancient origins. It was the Oenotrians, a population who lived beyond the Lao River and stoic fugitives from Lucania, who met the Greeks in remote times. Cuccaro frames its village, still intact, in the greenery of the Cilento mountains. Here the plant species , fauna they are the masters. Alleys, viculieddi and stairways are the leitmotif of the small village which has just over 700 inhabitants. Its geographical location has made it, throughout history, a defensive stronghold of Velia, and later a bastion of the Normans, who built a castle and walls there. Frederick II also made the city his fiefdom.
Cuccaro was the seat of the Byzantine monastery of San Nicola di Mira and, from 1333, of a Franciscan monastery whose interiors and a beautiful cloister, recently restored, can be admired. The former convent of San Francesco was recovered thanks to the collective work of architects, engineers, lighting designers, the municipal administration and the Superintendency.
Cuccaro is also famous for the pacifier prize. The event consists of a speed race between donkeys, ridden bareback, which takes place in the streets of the historic centre.
For those who want to spend quiet days in the greenery of Cilento, Cuccaro Vetere, has a favorable position because it is a few kilometers from the most famous locations of palinuro, Camerota or from the gulf of Policastro.
