Prata di Principato Ultra

Just outside the town (310 m, approx. 3,000 inhabitants), which stretches along both sides of the road and juts out on a spur into a bend of the River Sabato, the Basilica of the Annunziata preserves the remains of two of the oldest monuments in Irpinia. The first is the apse of the original church, carved into the tuff and dating from the 6th century (the fresco of the Madonna and Child is 11th-century); the second is the Christian catacomb at the end of a small courtyard to the left of the church. This underground place of worship (3rd or 4th century) is linked to the spread of Christianity in nearby Abellinum, and contains arcosolia, altars, sarcophagi and frescoes, the most notable of which depicts the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin of the Annunciation.