Today you only need to open the freezer to get an ice cube, but for centuries cold was a precious commodity, gathered in the mountains and sold in the city. We went up to Bracigliano, in the hills on the border between the provinces of Salerno and Avellino, to discover the story of the nevieri, the men who gathered snow in winter and sold it in summer, turned into ice. It is a vanished trade, but it told us a great deal about this area.
Bracigliano, a town among the mountains
Bracigliano is a small town in the province of Salerno, at about 350 metres above sea level. It is surrounded by high ground: to the north the Faitaldo and Piesco mountains, to the east Salto and Ariella, to the west the Spianata and Monte Foresta. These very mountains, often snow-covered in winter, were an economic resource for centuries.
Its territory borders Forino, already in Irpinia, and Siano. Walking around town you will come across several churches, including the parish church of San Giovanni Battista, the church of the Santissima Annunziata and that of Santi Nazario e Celso, as well as the convent of San Francesco, founded in 1618, and Palazzo De Simone.
The snow trade
From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century the snow trade was an important business throughout the Kingdom of Naples. Snow was used to chill drinks and food, to make sorbets and granitas for the wealthiest families, and it also had a medical use. In Salerno, as those who have studied the history of the city's snow pits recall, physicians in the tradition of the Scuola Medica Salernitana prescribed it for fevers, wounds and haemorrhages.
According to this research, the snow that reached Salerno came from several mountains: from the hills of Cava de' Tirreni, the Picentini, the Alburni and also the mountains of Bracigliano. For mountain towns, in short, snow was a harvest like any other, to be stored with care and sold at the right moment.
How a snow pit worked
At the heart of it all were the neviere, the snow pits. In this area some were in the pine wood of Piano Salto, right on the border between Forino and Bracigliano. They could be masonry structures or simple holes in the ground, almost circular, between 5 and 10 metres across.
The nevieri's work followed the rhythm of the seasons. In winter, after snowfalls, the snow was gathered and carried to the pits, alternating layers of snow pressed down with wooden tools and layers of straw, which acted as insulation. The entrances faced north, to shield them from the sun, and were covered with branches. As it compacted, the snow turned to ice and lasted until summer.
With the heat came the time to sell. The ice was cut into blocks with special tools, loaded onto carts or mules and carried down to the valley, often at night to limit melting. Part of it stayed in the nearby towns, part took the road to the cities.
A hard and devout trade
Being a neviere was tiring, risky work: you laboured in freezing cold on mountain paths, and in summer you raced against time. It is no surprise that the cult of the Madonna della Neve (Our Lady of the Snows) spread among the snow traders of the Kingdom, who entrusted to her the success of the harvest and the safety of their journeys.
It all came to an end between the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, when the production of artificial ice made the snow pits obsolete. Many pits were abandoned and overgrown, but the memory of the nevieri lives on in the mountain towns.
How to get there and when to go
Bracigliano can be reached by car from the A30 Caserta-Salerno motorway or the Salerno-Avellino link road, then heading inland on the provincial roads. The best times to walk in the mountains around the town are spring and autumn; in winter, with a bit of luck, you will see the peaks dusted with snow and can imagine the nevieri at work. Ask the local hiking associations which trails are passable.
Nearby
From Bracigliano you can drive down to Salerno to visit The Minerva Garden and the Scuola Medica Salernitana, where ancient medicine took shape, or head towards Cava de' Tirreni and The Badia di Cava, the Abbey of the Holy Trinity. If you love the mountains in winter, read Winter in Campania: snow at Laceno and thermal spas. For the rest of your itinerary, see our guides Salerno and its surroundings and Avellino and its surroundings.
Photo at the top (Bracigliano): Pere Garcia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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