Cilento Diano and Alburni National Park
Il Cilento national park, Vallo di Diano and Alburni it is a national park established in 1991, while the body for its management was established in 1995. The protected natural area of approximately 36 hectares, entirely included in the province of Salerno, was subsequently extended to bring its surface area to 181 hectares, corresponding today to the southern part of the province, between the Sele plain to the north, Basilicata to the east and south and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It includes, in whole or in part, the territories of 048 mountain communities and 8 municipalities. Since 80 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site (with the archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia and the Certosa di Padula), since 1998 it has been a Biosphere Reserve and since 1997 it has been the first Italian national park to become a geopark. The headquarters of the park is in Vallo della Lucania. link to the official website
“Cilento, a land with gentle hilly morphologies, covered with expanses of ash-green olive trees that are reflected in the blue of the Tyrrhenian Sea and at the same time, a land with very harsh morphologies deeply engraved by lively streams, lunar-looking raias, chestnut and holm oaks, villages clinging to the rocks or lying on the banks. Few imagine that what determines this fresco, made of suggestive shapes and colors apparently in strong contrast, is the dual nature and gentle cosmetics geological nature of the rocks that make up Cilento: that of the «Cilento Flysch», which has its maximum diffusion in correspondence with the hydrogeographic basin of the River Breath and of the main mountains of western Cilento, such as Monte Centaurino (1433 m), and that of the «limestone rocks» that make up the internal (Alburno-Cervati) and southern (Monte Bulgheria, Monte Cocuzzo) mountain complexes of the Cilento National Park and Vallo di Diano.
On the high coast, the Flysch is characterized by the dense stratification of the rocks which sometimes take on particular shapes and colors as can be found in the Ripe Rosse area or in the marine terrace of Punta Licosa.
CILENTO NATIONAL PARK
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The resulting landscapes can be recognized for their often gentle morphologies and for the greater presence of trees of the Mediterranean scrub.
Leaving the north-western coast, the Flysch territory, and moving towards the interior of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, the landscape changes: we are in the "kingdom" of limestone rocks, in the presence of the carbonate massifs of Alburni and Cervati . The landscape, shaped by karst forms, by the harshness of certain slopes marked by intense tectonics; with large ravines dug out by perpetually overflowing torrents, it presents itself with a lunar appearance made barren by the "poverty" of the land, even if, where the conditions of the soil and water allow it, it becomes rich in Mediterranean woods and beech forests or lavender meadows. Characteristic of the geology of these rocks are the karst forms, due to the dissolution of calcium carbonate which produces "erosion" and deposition with formations, among other things, of stalactites and stalagmites.
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The resulting forms can be superficial (epigeal) such as the furrows of the roaded fields, sinkholes, and sinkholes or deep (hypogean) such as caves, tunnels and cavities, present in the Park territory, many of which are still unexplored. The karst phenomenon is particularly evident in the Alburni Mountains with the magnificent evidence of the almost 5 km long Castelcivita cave; of the Pertosa cave accessible for a stretch with rafts; and of the Auso cave near S. Angelo in Fasanella.
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Particularly attractive karst forms are those that the Bussento river has produced in the Caselle in Pittari– Morigerati, with its long underground course and the deep gorges produced by the river Mingardo in the section crossing Monte Bulgheria. Deep cuts, which affect the "soft" white limestone, are those produced by the stream Sammaro, from the Calore river and the Bussentino; their rushing waters are often the creators of waterfalls and rapids of rare natural spectacle.” (source: https://www.cilentoediano.it/it/geomofologia-geoloAlready)
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