VENOSA (anc. Venusia, q.v.), a town and bishop's see of the Basilicata in the province of Potenza, Italy, on the eastern side of Mount Vulture, 52 m. by rail S.S.E. of Foggia, 1,345 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1930 9,985. The castle, built in 147o, contains four stables each for 5o horses. Many fragments of Roman work manship are built into the 15th century cathedral. The abbey church of SS. Trinita is historically interesting; it was consecrated in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II. and passed into the hands of the Knights of St. John in 1297. In the central aisle is the tomb of Alberada, the first wife of Robert Guiscard and mother of Bohemund. An inscription on the wall commemorates the great
Norman brothers William Iron Arm (d. 1046), Brogo (murdered at Venosa in 1051), Humfrey (d. 1057) and Robert Guiscard (d. at Corfu in 1085). The bones of these brothers rest together in a simple stone sarcophagus opposite the tomb of Alberada. The church also contains some 14th-century frescoes. Behind it is a larger church, which was begun for the Benedictines about 1150.
See 0. de Lorenzo, Venosa e la Regione del Vulture (Bergamo, 1906).