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Post-nuclear
Potenza
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We
travel to Potenza - one of Italy's most unlikely
tourist destinations - and find a haven for fans
of functional and post-nuclear architecture.
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 If
you take the motorway towards Bari and exit at Candela,
don't be surprised if you're left speechless by
the countryside. The beautiful low domed mountains
are bare and shrouded in mystery. Are we still in
Italy? It would seem so, and we continue along the
dual carriageway that winds around Melfi
before heading towards Potenza.
By the time we arrive in the latter night has fallen
and we decide to stay in a 3-star hotel
just outside the town (Hotel Vittoria in Via della
Tecnica 11 - tel. +39-0971-56632). It's clean and
comfortable and reasonably priced at LIT 120,000
for a double room.
Potenza has never been on the tourist trail. In
the Middle Ages when hill towns were springing up
on all suitably elevated locations Potenza followed
suite - with the exception that today no-one knows
where the old part of town actually was built. This
is due to the fact that Potenza is periodically
damaged by earthquakes only to be rebuilt
in slightly less style than before. Which doesn't
really make for a tourist attraction, does it?
Indeed one of the things that makes Potenza distinctive
is its neo-functional architecture, typical of
the 1970s, which is applied to a typical hill
town In other words, its weird, if not unnerving,
to see huge blocks of flats towering over hair-pin
bends!
It takes just over an hour to visit Potenza
as the old part of town runs along one main street
lined with low buildings that have been tastefully
renovated into trendy shops each one with a creatively
dressed window. We're spoiled for choice at lunchtime
as Potenza boasts plenty of good, yet cheap, restaurants.
We finally opt for "La pergola", in Contrada
Macchia Romana 23 (tel. +39-0971-444982), where
the food is excellent but the service is rather
slow...
Enthusiasts of post-nuclear architecture
should head out of town to see two 'fine' examples
of the art. The first, on the road to Melfi, is
the city hospital which was extended last summer
thanks to the addition of a series of odd hemispherical
structures. The second, still on the road to Melfi,
is a seven or eight storey "nursing home" built
entirely in reinforced concrete. Unsettling to say
the least!
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DARIO
MORGANTE |
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Nov.
29th, 2001
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THE SURVIVOR'S 
