di Selvaggia Nespolino – Stonehenge is a name that, as soon as it is pronounced, brings to mind mysterious rites linked to the summer solstice (21 June). It is a very famous English astronomical calendar from prehistoric times.
Not many people know that even in Italy there are some, linked to the winter solstice (December 21st) which is attributed to the triumph of light over darkness, i.e. the days that we begin to get longer. This event's audience it was celebrated by the Romans with the "Sol invictus" and, subsequently, by the Christians with the Birth of Christ.
In our peninsula, from "Petre de la Mola" in Basilicata to the megaliths of the Belice Valley in Sicily, the stone calendars almost all date back to the late Bronze Age and were built with the same technique as Stonehenge in Great Britain. As Polcaro explains: they consist of observing the position of the sun on the shortest or longest day of the year and creating aiming points.
Cilento also boasts of having a megalith, precisely on Monte della Stella. Is called “Preta ru Mulacchio” (Stone of the Legitimate Son) and was associated with fertility rites. “The complex” was frequented until the 50s. The women approached the stone giants to perform an ancient rite, handed down from generation to generation since the dawn of time: leaving the main path they entered a side path immersed in dense vegetation that almost hid it from view and entered the two narrow passages of rocks believing that, once fertilized by the Sun, they would give them fertility.
La Preta is made up of three natural boulders in which natural tunnels have formed. However, it has been modified by the work of man over the course of history: large stones were fitted in precise positions between the original blocks, thus creating a roof over the complex to perfect passage within it. The roof collects rainwater which flows through drains.
None of the boulders that make up Petra are in a random position: all together they form a structure calibrated to the position of the Sun, capable of precisely indicating the winter and summer solstices. The sun's rays penetrate the rural tunnels forming a blade of light, an astronomical phenomenon common to prehistoric megalithic structures. The position and length of the blade of light change every day and constantly over the course of the year. This is why the site Mount of the Star one was named “Stonehenge of Cilento”.
This "stone calendar" can be visited thanks to a wooden staircase set up by the Park Authority, reachable from the Sanctuary car park with a path of around 400 metres.
