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The Parasicilide succession is a key element of the southern Apennine orogen, being originally located in the distal portion of the Apulian palaeomargin, at the Neotethys ocean‐continent transition. The succession, presently included in the upper nappe complex of the thrust belt, has been described elsewhere as a `broken formation'. However, detailed investigations carried out in the Sele Valley point out that there the Parasicilide Unit is characterized by a coherent stratigraphy. Therefore, in the study area, these rocks form a coherent sheet of distal continental margin/oceanic sedimentary cover material included within the peri‐Tyrrhenian mountain belt. Stratigraphic and structural constraints obtained from both pre‐and syn‐orogenic deposits – the latter including both foredeep and thrust‐top basin sediments – suggest that the pre‐orogenic part of the Parasicilide succession subsided into the Apennine foredeep in the first part of the Burdigalian. The studied rocks were then involved in thrusting prior to late Burdigalian/early Langhian times.

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Based on the structural analysis of the 'Internal' Units cropping out in the Cilento area (southern Italy), this article provides new geodynamic constraints on the Miocene tectonic evolution of the southern Apennine accretionary wedge. The studied sedimentary successions, forming part of the tectonically superposed Nord-Calabrese (in the hangingwall) and Parasicilide Units, are characterized by three superposed fold sets. The analysis of the attitudes of the main structures allowed us to unravel the shortening directions experienced by the accretionary wedge in the Miocene time. The reconstructed deformation sequence, characterized by initial NW-SE shortening and subsequently by west-east and NE-SW shortening, is related to the inclusion of the studied successions into the accretionary wedge and to their subsequent tectonic emplacement on top of outer domains of the foreland plate. Accretionary wedge overthickening and uplift, probably associated with footwall imbrication involving carbonate units of the foreland plate, was followed by wedge thinning, which also enhanced the creation of accommodation space in wedge-top basin depocentres.

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