The Grecanic village - Roccaforte del Greco
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- Last Updated on Friday, 23 February 2024 13:48
- Published on Thursday, 23 May 2013 15:27
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Village of San Lorenzo superiore
San Lorenzo supriore is a small and extremely charming municipality of Byzantine origin, in which Greek was still spoken until the first half of the 18th century. Although today it is sparsely inhabited, it was, together with Bova, one of the most important municipalities in the region in the area between Reggio Calabria and Locri. In the history of united Italy, when Garibaldi landed in Melito Porto Salvo, the village welcomed Garibaldi's fugitives after their failed attempt to conquer the Altafiumara fort, protecting them from the Bourbons and allowing them to continue the liberation of southern Italy. The symbol of San Lorenzo is a centuries-old elm tree, located in the square that houses the church. It is a rarity from a botanical point of view, as no comparable specimens of this tree are known in the whole of southern Italy. he Protopapal Church and the Dittereale Church are dedicated to Santa Maria Nives and Santa Maria della Caramia respectively. Two treasures of Byzantine origin that bear witness to the passage of various conquering peoples. Important works are kept in the Protopapale church: the marble statue of Santa Maria della Neve, attributed to Gagini, and the wooden statue of San Lorenzo. Every 12 August, a procession carries an ancient Byzantine icon from San Lorenzo to San Pantaleone at the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Cappella.
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Village of Roccaforte del Greco
In Greek Vunì, meaning mountain or mountain, Roccaforte del Greco sits on a steep hill that offers a 360° panoramic view of the entire Amendolea Valley. The village arose in the orbit of the Holy Trinity monastery, the innermost Byzantine outpost, near punta d'Atò, Greek for 'peak of the eagle'. The village church, dedicated to San Rocco, houses a statue of the Madonna and Child, made after the Latinisation of the Bova diocese. Positioned on three rocky ridges, the village dominates the Amendolea valley. The old part houses the Town Hall, right where, according to popular memory, the castle that later collapsed stood near the precipice. Surrounding it are the Castello district, the Borgo district and the San Carlo district, the latter now almost uninhabited.
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Village of Bagaladi
The village of Bagaladi is located in the Valle del Tuccio, an area strongly linked to Calabria's Greek Orthodox past. In fact, in this area, which is also overlooked by the Borgo di San Lorenzo Superiore, there are small hamlets and districts that have Greek names, such as Chorio and Musupuniti, and names of typically Byzantine saints such as San Pantaleone and San Fantino. Bagaladi is not only one of the two gateways to the Greek Aspromonte National Park (the other is Bova), but it is also a small municipality resulting from the mixture of many cultures, starting with its name, which seems to be of Arab-Greek origin. Known for its numerous olive groves that enrich its agriculture and make the landscape of unparalleled beauty, it is important for the production of a special harvested olive oil that is the livelihood of much of its population. Bagaladi is situated on a hill at the foot of Mount San'Angelo, and lays its roots, dating back to the 10th century, in a place that was home to numerous Basilian monasteries such as the Badìa di San Teodoro, very close to the town, the Monastery of Sant'Angelo, San Fantino and San Michele. Around 1500, the village took its current name, a name that is the subject of historical disputes as to its derivation. Many maintain that it comes from the Arabic 'Baha-Allah', meaning beauty that comes from God,later mispronounced as Vadalà, the surname of a family that used to reside here. In the Calabrian Greek language, in fact, the suffix -adi is given as belonging to a family. Others trace it back to the great oil production, a mixture of Latin and Greek terms such as 'bag' or 'vallum-val' and 'aladi' meaning oil in modern Greek, and therefore Valle dell'olio.
Village of Motta San Giovanni
The term 'motta' once indicated a fortified centre erected on the top of a cliff, inaccessible and at the same time panoramic. The origin of Motta San Giovanni is, however, uncertain, although the village developed around 1500, probably after the destruction of the S. Niceto fortress, of which interesting ruins remain. The original nucleus of the fortress was built at the beginning of the 11th century; it was then recorded as a 'castrum' in the Angevin registers of 1268 and, in the following year, was listed among the 19 castles of the Regia Curia. Numerous works were carried out by the Aragonese and in 1459 it was annexed to Reggio. The irregular plan of the enclosure delimits a vast area with numerous ruins in which an escarpment tower serving as a donjon, a building leaning against the walls, a central palace and a sacred building can be seen. Significant are the remains of the curtain wall with slightly protruding towers and the entrance gate between two square towers.
Motta San Giovanni has always been known for the craftsmanship of Reggina stone: a sedimentary limestone rock widely used in construction called 'Pietra di Lazzaro'.
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