SCALFORIO

Below the bell tower of the Mother Church is a street that leads to a typically medieval neighborhood called Scalforio. The name comes from extra forum, which means 'outside the square' in Latin. It was, in fact, outside the walls of the Norman citadel and is thought to have re-entered, only later, within the fortification. The Arch of Scalforio, an important enclosure system, is characteristic. The neighborhood is distinguished by steep slopes, blind streets and alleys that draw a labyrinth, similar to a casbah, and houses side by side, many of them built on live stone. Also characteristic of the neighborhood are the decorative elements of gray sandstone, which in technique and decoration recall the rose windows of medieval churches, but represent for originality a great heritage of folk art. Also located here is the Church of St. Nicholas, a single-nave building dating from the medieval period, which has a bell tower with an underpass considered one of the gates to the Norman citadel. Inside the church are oil-on-canvas paintings, an 18th-century wooden crucifix, and a statue of Our Lady of Easter. But of great interest are the main altar and the four side altars.