Grottole presents itself as a village divided into two distinct parts: the ancient part, full of cobbled streets and historic buildings that narrate the history of the community, and the modern part, more functional and contemporary. While the old Grottole enchants with its timeless charm and its authenticity rooted in history, the new Grottole offers a vision of the growth and evolution of the city. The contrast between the two parts adds a unique element to the experience of visiting Grottole, highlighting the diversity and coexistence of past and present.
Grottole has remote origins so as to be one of the oldest centers in the region. The finds of prehistoric, Greek and Roman settlements are a precise testimony in this sense. The toponym could derive from the Greek Kruptai, hidden places, and from the Latin cryptulae or small caves, rooms used for working clay, an art for which Grottole has remained famous over the centuries.
In the Magna Graecia period, Grottole was part of the VII Metapontine region, colonized by the Greeks starting from the VIII century BC. It was fortified by the Longobards, from whom it managed to escape around the year 1000. In 1061, in the Norman era, the feud of Grottole passed under the dominion of Guglielmo Braccio di Ferro, and subsequently passed to Roberto il Guiscardo and then to the counts Loffredo di Matera. Over the centuries the fiefdom of Grottole was disputed by various lordships. Carlo I D'Angiò assigned it to Ruggero di Lauro, count of Tricarico, who had supported the Angevin conquest, and from these it passed to the Monteforte and Orsini Del Balzo families. At the beginning of the sixteenth century it was a possession of the Gaetani Dell'Aquila d'Aragona family. In 1534 it passed under the dominion of the Marquises Sanchez De Luna of Aragon, the treasurers of the Kingdom of Naples, while in the following century the Caracciolos and Spinellis of San Giorgio followed one another, until 1738 when it passed to the Sanseverinos of Bisignano by marriage. After 1806, with the subversive law of feudalism, the assets were divided between the descendants of the Sanseverinos and D. Rosa Miracco, a natural daughter of Luigi Sanseverino 13th Prince of Bisignano [8], who had always been closely linked to the feud of Grottole. Only in 1874 did Grottole get rid of the last feudatory Prince Sanseverino. The municipal territory (the ancient universitas as the municipalities were once called) was divided into districts.
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