Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park
The Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park is one of Italy’s largest protected areas, covering approximately 181,000 hectares in the Province of Salerno in southern Campania. Established in 1991, it encompasses the rugged Cilento peninsula, the fertile Vallo di Diano valley, and the Monti Alburni limestone massif. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1998 as part of the “Archaeological Areas of Agrigento” nomination cluster, extended to include the park’s cultural landscape) and a designated MAB Biosphere Reserve, recognised for its exceptional biodiversity and millennia of continuous human habitation that produced the great Greek colonial cities of Paestum and Velia.
At a glance
- Type
- National park; UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Landscape and Biosphere Reserve
- Period
- Founded 1991; cultural heritage spanning Greek colonisation (6th century BC) through medieval and modern periods
- Style
- Natural landscape; archaeological heritage; vernacular hill-town architecture
- Location
- Province of Salerno, Campania, southern Italy
Overview
Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park is an Italian national park in the Province of Salerno, in Campania in southern Italy. It includes much of the Cilento, the Vallo di Diano and the Monti Alburni. It was founded in 1991 and was formerly known as the Parco Nazionale del Cilento e Vallo di Diano. The park’s territory encompasses dramatic coastal cliffs, deep river gorges, cave systems, and over 1,800 plant species, making it one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the Mediterranean basin.
History
The Cilento coast was colonised by Greek settlers from the 6th century BC, who founded Poseidonia (later Paestum) and Elea (Velia), two of the best-preserved Greek colonial cities in the world. Medieval monasteries and hilltop towns subsequently shaped the cultural landscape over the following thousand years, with communities perched on defensible ridges above malaria-prone coastal plains. The Vallo di Diano’s Certosa di Padula, the largest Carthusian monastery in Italy, was founded in 1306 and expanded into a monumental complex over four centuries. The park’s formal establishment in 1991 formalised conservation of a landscape that had never experienced the industrial transformation that altered much of northern Italy.
What you see
The park offers extraordinary variety: the Greek temples of Paestum — three Doric temples among the best preserved in the world, including the Temple of Neptune (c. 450 BC) — stand in a flat coastal plain backed by the Apennine foothills. The Certosa di Padula unfolds across an immense courtyard complex of cloisters, chapels, and cells. Throughout the park, medieval villages such as Teggiano, Padula, and Castelcivita cling to limestone ridges. The Grotte di Pertosa-Auletta are among the most spectacular cave systems in southern Italy, with an underground river navigable by boat.
Cultural significance
The park’s UNESCO inscription recognises its outstanding universal value as a cultural landscape where evidence of Greek, Roman, medieval, and early modern civilisation layers a terrain of exceptional natural beauty. Paestum’s temples and the Certosa di Padula are anchor monuments of Italian heritage; together they make the Cilento one of the most historically dense corners of the Italian south, a living counterargument to the idea that cultural tourism in Italy is concentrated exclusively in the north.
Practical information
- Address
- Park headquarters: Via Tempa della Guardia, 84048 Vallo della Lucania (SA)
- Paestum temples
- Via Magna Graecia 917, 84047 Capaccio Paestum (SA) — open daily; entry fee applies
- Certosa di Padula
- 84034 Padula (SA) — open Tuesday–Sunday; entry fee applies
- Coordinates
- 40.2886° N, 15.3587° E (park centroid)
Getting there
The park is most accessible by car via the A2 (Autostrada del Mediterraneo); exit at Battipaglia for Paestum (approximately 30 km south on the SS18) or at Padula–Buonabitacolo for the Certosa di Padula. Regional trains from Naples (Napoli Centrale) serve Paestum station in approximately 90 minutes. The nearest major airports are Naples International (Capodichino), approximately 100 km north, and Lamezia Terme, approximately 150 km south.