IL PERSONAGGIO

Agerola’s most distinguished citizen was General Paul C. M. Avitabile (1791 – 1850) who began his military career in the Murattian army and continued it first with the Shah of Persia and then with the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh, who appointed him general and governor first of Wazirabad and then of the most difficult to control Afghan province: Peshawar. Back home he went first to Paris, where he was awarded the Legion of Honor, and then to London, a guest of Queen Victoria. In Italy General Avitabile resided first in Naples, then in Castellammare di Stabia and finally in Agerola, where he died-in circumstances never fully clarified-in the beautiful palace he was completing in S. Lazzaro. It was demolished in 1937 to make way for the Colonia Montana. On the entrance facade of the palace he had “O Beata Solitudo, O Sola Beatitudo” written.