​ACERENZA (anc. Aceruntia), a town of the province of Potenza, Italy, the seat of an archbishop, 151/2 m. N.E. of the station of Pietragalla, which is 9 m. N.W. of Potenza by rail, 2730 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 4499. Its situation is one of great strength, and it has only one entrance, on the south. It was occupied as a colony at latest by the end of the Republic, and its importance as a fortress was specially appreciated by the Goths and Lombards in the 6th and 7th centuries. It has a fine Norman cathedral, upon the gable of which is one of the best extant busts of Julian the Apostate.