Located at the foot of the Gelbison and facing the sea of Velia, it enjoys an exceptional geographical position. The landscape is of incomparable beauty: vast clearings of Mediterranean scrub and then, going up to altitude, the centuries-old chestnut groves, the large beech woods, the springs, the streams and the Carmine and Nocellito lakes.
Probably founded by the inhabitants of Civitella around the 9th-10th century, tradition attributes to Cannalonga the original name of Tolve from the Latin terra ulvae or land of the ulva, a marsh plant that evidently coexisted with the reeds to which the current name of the town refers.
Cannalonga assumed great importance around 1450 because it was the site of a large September market, the Fiera della Frecagnola (which is still held today) and above all because it was the seat of the Banco della Giustizia which, since 1546, had jurisdiction over much of the mountain Cilento. This territory went as a dowry to the noble of Spanish origin Don Toribio Alfonso Mogrovejo in the year 1680. The most illustrious member of the noble family was Toribio, archbishop of Lima and Primate of Peru who, who died in 1680, was beatified and became the patron saint of the country .
The ancient village encloses a magnificent square overlooked by the ducal palace with its towers and its courtyard full of frescoes and marble statues. Traditional appointment is the historic Frecagnola fair.