The Grecanic village - Staiti
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- Category: dintornis
- Last Updated on Friday, 23 February 2024 13:48
- Published on Thursday, 23 May 2013 15:27
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Village of Staiti
A characteristic medieval village, with houses arranged in terraces and the historical centre crossed by a dense tangle of narrow streets, Staiti rises about 12 kilometres from the coast in the Aspromonte Park, surrounded by a real natural rock barrier that, in past centuries, proved to be an excellent protection against pirate raids. It was founded as Casale di Brancaleone, around 1500, by farmers and shepherds; it took its name from the Staiti family, who exercised feudal rule over it. The parish church of medieval origin, dedicated to Santa Maria della Vittoria in memory of the victory of the Christians over the Muslims in the Battle of Lepanto, restored in 1967, houses a marble Madonna and Child by Gagini. In the area stands the Abbey of Santa Maria dei Tridetti, a Byzantine church whose origin is uncertain: legend has it that a temple dedicated by the Locrians to Poseidon, god of the sea, existed on the site, information supported by the discovery of a coin with the god depicted. Between the 7th and 8th centuries, on the same site, Basilian monks founded a Greek church in honour of Our Lady of the Trident (a clear allusion to the sea deity), later passed down in Tridetti through the dialect. The church is first mentioned in a document from 1060. Also worth seeing are the ruins of a monastery, dating back to the year 1000, inhabited by the first Basilian monks who took refuge on Aspromonte. Recently established, the Museum of the Italo-Greek Saints of Staiti, with its collection of Byzantine icons, is the real pearl of the village, and is intended to be the completion of a journey to recover the community's Greek Orthodox traditions.
