According to tradition, Miglionico was founded by Milone, from whom the name of the town would also derive; he was a famous athlete from Crotone in the 6th century B.C., winner in the battle against Sibari, and defined as Olympic because he won several times as a wrestler in the Olympic Games. According to another interpretation Milone the founder of Miglionico was Milone of Taranto, a lieutenant of Pyrrhus who also took part in the battle of Heraclea, who arrived on the hills between the Bradano and Basento rivers and founded a military colony there, calling it Miglionico. Milone provided Miglionico with large walls, as stated in the sentence Milo Magnus Miles Me Munivit Magnis Muris, represented by the seven M initials on the coat of arms of the town. After the Greek colonization, it became a Lucanian city, then passed under the Samnites until 458 BC, when it was conquered by the Romans. The history of this center is closely linked, however, to that of its imposing castle.
The city was fortified first by the Byzantines and then by the Normans.
During the period of Aragonese domination, Miglionico became famous because in the town’s castle, belonging to the Sanseverino family, all the barons of the kingdom, rebels against Ferdinand I of Aragon, King of Naples, gathered to simulate an act of submission to the king while waiting for the Pope’s help.
Subsequently the feud was the domain of several noble families.
Very beautiful are the Mother Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, with a beautiful Renaissance portal, the small church of the Trinity, with frescoes of the mid-fifteenth century and the church of San Francesco, flanked by a small convent in whose interior is preserved the wonderful polyptych of Cima di Conegliano of 1499.
