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Sorry, I'm lazy so I've used Translate by Google...

San Mauro Forte: the origin of San Mauro Forte dates from the eleventh century, when the tuff cliff on which stands the town settled a Benedictine monastery under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Tricarico baron and a vassal of the Count of Montescaglioso. The Baron in addition to build his palace around 1100 strengthened throughout the town and erected on the eastern side of the cliff a three-storey tower now located in the center of the main square of the country for centuries and symbolically reproduced in paintings and coats of arms family. Access to the town was secured by four main gates: the gate Piazzile still present in the north-western edge of the walls, the door of the baron, Porta S. Lucia and door Jodice destroyed (there are still the ruins). To the west, where the cliff appeared morphologically more accessible, it was later dug a moat filled, which is now widely Monastery. In this square is the church of the same name, also known as the Annunciation, built on land donated in 1483 to the Friars Minor Conventual, who also built a convent very large. This, though incomplete, has 5 floors and occupies, with the courts and the cloister, an area of ​​over 4000 square meters, the so-called "cave of the monks," a subterranean used for wine making, measuring 300 square meters alone. The monastery, the monks requirement by decree of Joachim Murat in 1809, is now privately owned by many people and in the past was used as a barracks by the Bourbons first then the weapon of the police. It is currently being renovated to finally obtain private homes. On the ruins of the baronial palace settled the present church of S. Assumption of Episcopia, renovation work began in 1553 and went very slowly. The body of the church was moved to a then north to avoid the lure of the landslide in the valley. The Norman tower was used as a bell tower, while the basement of the old palace, closed loopholes, were used as burial. Today the church is being restored, and the problems of stability of the complex have been complicated to work towards the recovery of the basement of the building, after which there was a detachment of the structure of the rock on which rests. From these basements branch out a series of tombs that besides serving as real rooms of the building, were used as escape routes in case of "strategic retreats", where some of them go on for miles. Some of the ways out of these underground corridors have been identified in the eighteenth century buildings built near the church in the Norman tower and place near the town, in particular having an output shaft shape, closed some years ago, and in which the undersigned fell, is located in S. John about 600-700 meters from the church. From the twelfth century the estate of S. Mauro passes by inheritance, dowry, lost the game, etc. ... a feudal lord to another until, after a confused period lasted until the mid-eighteenth century, during which it was claimed by several creditors kings, was rescued by four customers (Archers, Lauria, Acquaviva and Archers), former directors of the landowners who had come and gone in the property of the estate. They invested the title of barons, settled in the country, building their residences within the city walls. The medieval fortress for many centuries has contained within itself the building expansion, with the progressive filling of the open spaces originally used as crops, only in the XIX century buildings debordarono ancient core, first upon himself the city walls, then real wards outside of them. The fortifications were maintained effective until the last century, so that during the brigands, nobles from neighboring countries came to take refuge in S. Mauro in response to incursions of bands headed by Crocco. The residences of families historically linked to land ownership, first of all those who in the mid-eighteenth century acquired the estate and settled there, have ornamental elements of great value and testify to the relationship that the owners had with the Neapolitan culture, report also documented by the presence in S. Mauro of paintings depicting elements clearly inspired by the Neapolitan, the work of artists invited to the village to embellish churches (each of these families had a private chapel in the building or a private residence, or as a stand-alone building. Churches in the country are totally 5 excluding those missing up area, those in private homes and those outside the town) and palaces. From the 1700 stone portals, cornices, pilasters, scrolls and floral friezes adorning plazas and squares and even today, even when threatened by neglect and uncontrolled tampering, make pleasant spaces of collective life, contrasting with the austere image which the country turns to the surrounding area.