Arte e Architettura in Calabria

Roberto d'Altavilla (known as  Guiscardo ) and his Norman troops in Calabria during the XI century built numerous castles to conquer and then control the territory, but above all to defend the cities from saracens attack.  NOTE - There are more castle in Calabria than in France Roberto il Guiscardo In this post I will you mention just a few of them.... Let's start from Scribla , first norman castle on calabrian territory. remains of Scribla: built in the 1049 on previous longobard fortress, the castle is situated on a artificial hill ( motte ) at the centre of plane of Sibari, it was just a fortress to control the routes and plannig attack operations on other near cities. plain of Sibari : here insisted many medieval roads toward Apulia and Lucania, but also on Tyrrhenian coast. SAN MARCO ARGENTANO position of San Marco Argentano Fortress of San Marco Argentano: After leaving Scribla the Normans in 1054 moved at south and built a formidable motta , situated on previous roman f...

Dear readers of magnific places of Calabria, I'll tell you about a village born for protect itself from saracens raids in the end of IX century a.C. ( last byzantine period ). Cerchiara Calabra founded of controlling the route connecting the Piana of Sibari to Basilicata/Puglia (regions to the north). the images above show its perching at the foot of the Pollino National Park. HISTORY - Cerchiara is the heir of an greek ancient city situate in the plain belowe, in the X century a.C. its inhabitants also the coastal people fled to the entire territory and founded several little town on the heights, including Cerchiara. In its territory since the IX century a.C. the Basilian monks living in grottoes based on hermitage. OLD TOWN REMEBER: Cerchiara was situated near important lombard gastaldato of Cassano, so, the Lombards  (VII-VIII century) on its site built a fortification system that dominated the Plan of Sibari and controlling passageways. ruins of castle built in the XIV century ...

Cari lettori, nei post precedenti ho narrato la storia e le vicissitudini dei monaci basiliani e di alcuni monasteri da loro fondati su tutto il territorio calabrese, in questo caso oltre alla storia e all'architettura di questi luoghi collochiamo la parte naturale. Parliamo del più grande e antico platano italiano (22 m. di altezza) e uno dei più grandi alberi europei, specie proveniente dal mediterraneo orientale, probabilmente piantato nel X secolo d.C. dai monaci basiliani, infatti è situato nelle vicinanze di un monastero bizantino di Sant'Elia nel comune di Curinga (Cz). BREVE STORIA DEL TERRITORIO  - Curinga sorge in un territorio incontaminato fra i monti del Reventino e la grande piana di Lamezia, area abitata già in epoca neolitica, i coloni Greci tra il VI-V secolo a.C. su questa fertile pianura fondarono due antiche città magnogreche ovvero Terina e Temesa , infine nel II secolo a.C. i Romani occuparono questo fertile territorio costruendovi diverse ville rustiche a...