The impressive caves of Cape Palinuro, which today is reflected in a crystal clear sea, about 130,000 years ago (Riss glacial stage), were surrounded by a completely different landscape. The sea retreating for hundreds of meters from the coast line had given way to dense forests speckled with large clearings, the fauna was mainly composed of mountain goats, deer, deer, horses, bears and lions of the caves, while the shelter of the caves were 'Homo erectus.
All this is documented by the fossil record, particularly in the famous Cala Of Bones may be seen embedded in the rock and polished by the sea, the bones of such an amazing zoo. A more assiduous attendance of primitive man is recorded in the Neolithic (fourth millennium), the numerous remains of obsidian, found in the fossil dune, suggest Palinuro as a trading station with all islands from which came the natural glass.
During the Greek epic the promontory was known to mariners to the dangers of its current, so they called Palinouros, a sort of head Spartivento. Confirming the fears of the Greeks themselves designated by the name of a siren, Molpir that the graceful, flowing river on the slopes of Cape Palinuro, and we know that the sirens were an allegory of the treacherous waters. In 540 BC Ionian colonists from Phocaea founded Elea (Velia), buying the rights to the land by the indigenous population, the Enotri; at the same time erected on Cape Palinuro, Timpa in the locality of the Guard, a village with an adjoining cemetery. The excavations have yielded an abundance of pottery, tools, jewelry and even a few coins with the inscription incus Mol-Pal (Pal-Mol), who is about to Palinuro, the promontory, and Molpa (from Molpir) settlement.
Pal-Mol lasted a short period of thirty years, mysteriously died in 510. The poet Virgil was fascinated by the places gives an interpretation of the facts and said, in the Aeneid, Palinuro, helmsman of Aeneas betrayed by sleep falls into the sea, but came to the shore is attacked and killed by the natives. The gods of the underworld, from the episode offended sacrilegious, punish the people with a terrible plague.
We may never know exactly how the events went, but it is useful to remember that history is interwoven with the Phocaeans issues territories and ... women!
In Roman-Palinuro Molpa was equipped with stations of observations for the sighting of Carthaginian ships, but he was frequented by famous people, like the emperor Maximian said Herculius, who chose him for the beauty of the places and the goodness of the wines.
In medieval times the binomial Molpa and survived only on the hill was built a settlement which will be destroyed, for the first time, in 547 by Belisarius, Byzantine general. The survivors took refuge in various monasteries of the surrounding villages, contributing to the foundation of some still exist, including Centola.
The Normans in the eleventh century, fighting against the Lombards, fortified the hill building a mighty fortress, which is still preserved. The robust defenses Molpa eluded the tragic fate that after ten centuries is renewed: the dawn of 11 June 1464 a band of Saracens destroyed by enslaved its people. Molpa never recovered.
In 1554 the fief of Molpa-Palinuro was bought by the Spanish nobleman Don Sancho Martinez de Leyna who built some of the coastal towers.
The strategic importance of Cape Palinuro did not escape the king of Naples and Sicily, Joachim Murat, who, in the short decade of the Neapolitan Republic (1806-1815), protected the hill with a series of forts around which faced each other on several occasions by a French and the British, Bourbons, and the other robbers.
The ideals of the French Revolution had also made inroads in the soul of Cilento and the Risorgimento of 1828 saw Palinuro involved in fights against tyranny Bourbon: Palinuro was read the proclamation of the rioters Cilento "People were Neapolitan !,....", in Palinuro Capozzoli shot the patriots.
In subsequent years of the century there was a revival of the fishing village and some noble families built it interesting buildings include Villa Stanziola, Prince's Palace and Palazzo Rinaldi.
Recent history sees the realization of the weather station in 1936 and then the emergence of an international tourism promoted by the Club Med and strengthened by the hardworking people of Palinuro.

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