CALABRIA. 



CALABRIA. 



231 



S.E. from C'osenza : population, 5000. Bisignano, an episcopal 

 town, with about 4000 inhabitants, built on a high hill near the 

 junction of the Mucone with the Crati. San Giovanni-in-Fiore, near 

 the southern frontier, in the fork between the Neto and its feeder 

 the Afro : population, 5000. Eende, north-west of Cosenza, at the 

 foot of the Apennines : population, 4000. Scvjlia.no, south of Cosenza, 

 on a height near the Savuto, ia a collection of seven agricultural 

 villages, which form as many separate quarters, and have a total 

 population of 12,600. The environs are very fertile in corn, wine, 

 and silk. 



Soisano, an archiepiscopal town, north-east of Cosenza, and on the 

 road that skirts the Adriatic shore, is the capital of the district of 

 Rossano. It is situated on a rocky height, and has 12,300 inhabitants. 

 It is a well-built walled town defended by a castle ; and contains a 

 fine cathedral, 14 other churches, a diocesan seminary, and an 

 hospital. Among the other towns of the district are the following : 

 Cariati, a small episcopal town situated on a lofty hill, 5 miles 

 N. from the Fiumenica ; the town is entered by a gate and draw- 

 bridge ; and at one extremity of it are ruins of a feudal castle : 

 population, 2000. Corigliano, a handsome town of 13,000 inhabit- 

 ants, is built in form of an amphitheatre on the side of a steep hill, 

 the summit of which is crowned by a fine feudal castle, and com- 

 mands magnificent views. The town which is 7 miles W. from Rossano, 

 is supplied with water by an aqueduct, and ia considered the most 

 agreeable place of residence in Calabria next to Reggio. It contains 

 many liquorice-factories and extensive timber-yards, in which the 

 ship-timber of the Sila is stored for the supply of the shipwrights of 

 Naples. The castle is a residence of the Duke of Corigliano ; it is a 

 square building flanked with massive towers, and surrounded by a 

 deep moat. Longobuco, a small place on the eastern flank of the 

 Sila, near the source of the Trionto, deserves mention on account of 

 its silver-lead mines. It has a population of about 5000, most of 

 whom have employment connected with the mines and with charcoal- 

 burning. 



Paota, the capital of a district which lies north of the Savuto 

 and between th; Apennines and the shore of the Mediterranean, 

 is 14 miles N.W. from Cosenza, and has 5000 inhabitante. The 

 town stands on the shore and on the edge of a deep ravine, which is 

 crossed by a handsome bridge. It contains some good houses and 

 a feudal castle, and has extensive silk-factories, and a pottery. The 

 Apennines in this district are very difficult to pass ; the only road 

 that traverses the chain is the new cross-road from Cosenza to Paola ; 

 the mountain passes are infested by brigands, so that many interesting 

 towns along the coast are inaccessible to travellers, and many of them 

 communicate with each other only by water. Among the most 

 important of these coast-towns are Ajdlo, population, 3800 ; Amantea, 

 2800; Belvedere, 3900; Cciraro, 5700; Piumefreddo, behind which 

 rises the conspicuous and lofty peak of Monte Cocuzzo, population, 

 2800 ; Potcaldo, 7000 ; Scaled, 3000 ; and Verbiearo, 4500. 



Cattrovillari, the capital of a district which comprises the territory 

 north of the Crati and east of the Apennines, is situated on an 

 eminence surrounded by lofty mountains on the great Calabrian road 

 from Naples to Reggio, 30 miles N. from Cosenza, and has 7000 

 inhabitants. The modern portion of the town has handsome streets, 

 and contains the mansions of the rich proprietors of the district. 

 The town is defended by a massive feudal castle, supposed to be of 

 Norman erection. A cross-road leads from Castrovillari to Rossano, 

 where it joins the Via Trajana, which runs along the Adriatic coast. 

 Of the other towns the most important are the following : Cattano 

 is a well-built episcopal town, beautifully situated on the Ejano, a 

 feeder of the Coscile, 8 miles E. from Castrovillari, and has 6000 

 inhabitants. The scenery and climate of Cassano are not surpassed 

 in South Italy. It has hot sulphurous baths. On the summit of 

 the rocky mass round which the city is built are the ruins of a feudal 

 castle, one of the strongholds of the Serra family. The view from 

 the castle commands the beautiful valleys of the Coscile and the 

 Crati. Cassano is said to be the Roman Cosa, at the siege of which 

 T. Annius Milo was killed by a stone thrown from a tower, which 

 still stands and bears the name of Torre di Milo. The village of 

 Civita, higher up the valley and near the Ragonello, is according to 

 others the site of Cosa; there are some ancient buildings near it. 

 The district between the mouths of the Ragonello and the Crati, or 

 according to others the fork between the Coscile and the Crati, is the 

 site of the ancient Sybarit, founded by the Achxans and Trezenians, 

 B.C. 720. It traded extensively with Carthage, numbered at the time 

 of its greatest prosperity and luxury (for which it was proverbially 

 notorious) 300,000 inhabitants, and was utterly destroyed by the 

 Crotoniats, B.C. 510. Terranora, higher up the Crati and on its left 

 bank, is a small place of about 2500 inhabitants, but important as 

 marking the site of the ancient Thurii, which was founded by the 

 Athenians, B.C. 446, in order to supply the place of the destroyed city 

 of Sybaris. Herodotus, the historian, and Lysias, the orator, were 

 among the first colonists of Thurii. The city soon rose to eminence. 

 It submitted B.C. 190 to the Romans, who made it a colony and gave 

 it the name of Copia. A few miles north of Castrovillari is Morano, 

 a town of 9000 inhabitants, situated on a conical hill crowned by a 

 fine feudal castle at the western base of the Monte Pollino ridge. In 

 the neighbourhood of tho town are some beautiful wooded dells, up 



one of which, to northward, the great Calabrian road is led by well 

 constructed zig-zags to the bleak dreary plain of Campotenese, which 

 extends to the frontier of Basilicata. Morano has some silk aiid 

 woollen manufactures. In the uorth-eaat of the district near the 

 Canna, which here forms the boundary, is Rocca Imperialc, a small 

 place of 2000 inhabitants, built like most of the towns along the 

 coast and in other parts of Calabria round a conical hill. 



Calabria Ultra II. extends southward from Calabria Citra, to the 

 mouth of the Mesima in the Gulf of Gioja on the west, and to the 

 mouth of the Callipari on the east shore of the peninsula. It contains 

 an area of 2099 square miles, and had 381,147 inhabitants in 1851. 

 The province is divided into four districts Catanzaro, Cotrone, 

 Nicastro, and Monteleone and into 151 communes. 



C'ltanzaro, the capital of the province and the seat of one of four 

 Gran Corti Civili, or Courts of Appeal, in the continental dominions 

 of the king of -the Two Sicilies, is a well-built and important city, 

 situated a few miles from the Gulf Squillace, 26 miles S. by E. from 

 Cosenza, and has 12,000 inhabitants. It is built on the slope of a 

 high and rocky hill that rises above a deep ravine between the Alii 

 and the Corace and at the southern extremity of the Sila. The city 

 gives title to a bishop, and is the residence of numerous wealthy pro- 

 prietors. It is defended by a castle originally founded by Robert 

 Guiscard ; and contains a cathedral, several other churches, and a new 

 theatre." The court of appeal of Catanzaro has jurisdiction over the 

 three Calabrias ; the lyceum established in the town confers academical 

 degrees, and is one of the largest and best conducted colleges in the 

 kingdom. Squillace, a small ill-built episcopal town, situated on a 

 steep rocky eminence 9 miles S. from Catanzaro, has 2600 inhabitants. 

 This town gives name to the Gulf of Squillace and represents the 

 ancient Scylacseum which had the epithet of ' Navifragum,' from the 

 bold precipitous promontory (now Monte Moscia) which projects 

 opposite Squillace into the sea. There are fine views near Squillace, 

 comprising the isthmus and the shores of the gulfs of Squillace and 

 Sant' Eufemia. Squillace is the birth-place of Cassiodorus, the 

 enlightened minister of Theodoric and historian of the Goths, who 

 died here in a monastery founded by himself about A.D. 560. ado- 

 lato, a small town built on a hill a few miles N. from the Callipari, has 

 a population of 3400. The Callipari is said to be the ancient Helleporus, 

 on the right bank of which Dionysius the Elder totally defeated the 

 Crotoniats and other confederate Greeks in B.C. 389. 



Cotrone, the capital of the north-eastern district of the province, 

 derives its name from the ancient Croton or Crotona, one of the most 

 famous Greek cities in Italy, celebrated for its powerful athletes and 

 for the beauty of its women, the residence of Pythagoras, and the seat 

 of one of the earliest schools of medicine. The town has given title 

 to a bishop since the earliest age of the church; Diouysius the 

 Areopagite is said to have been its first bishop. It is now a small 

 place with only about 5000 inhabitants ; but is important for its 

 castle and fortifications founded by Charles V. Cotroue is 37 miles 

 N.E. from Catanzaro. It is built on a projecting point of land near 

 the mouth of the Esaro, which partly surrounds the town. It has a 

 small harbour, which is formed by a mole built with materials from 

 the temple of Juno on the Lacinian Promontory, now Cape Nau or 

 Colonne, which is a few miles S.E. from the town. One of the Doric 

 columns of the temple still stands erect, whence the cape has received 

 the name of Cape Colonne. The Eaaro, now almost choked with 

 weeds and little better than a stagnant ditch, is the ancient .-Esiirus, 

 the scene of one of the Bucolics of Theocritus. 



Among the other towns of the district is Giro, said by some to 

 occupy the site of the ancient Crimissa, founded by Philoctetes. It 

 is a small place of 3000 inhabitants, situated near the Punta dell' 

 Alice, the ancient promontory of Crimissa, on which Philoctetes is said 

 to have built a temple to Apollo and to have suspended therein the 

 bow and arrows of Hercules. Isola, a small town of 2000 inhabitants, 

 chiefly rich proprietors, stands between Cotrone and Cape Rizzuto. 

 Santa Severina, a small place of only 1000 inhabitants W. of Cotroue 

 on the cross road to San Giovanni-in-Fiore, gives title to an arch- 

 bishop. Strongoli, an episcopal city with 2000 inhabitants, situated 

 on a barren height near the coast north of Cotrone, is supposed 

 to occupy the site of the ancient Petilia, another city founded on 

 the coast by Philoctetes. The town was burnt by the French in 

 1806 ; it now contains many good houses. Two stones let into the 

 exterior wall of the cathedral are covered with Latin inscriptions, 

 which if genuine confirm the opinion that this was the site of Petilia. 

 A steep descent leads down from Strongoli to the plain of the broad 

 and rapid Neto, the Neajthus of Theocritus, in which the Trojan 

 women are said to have set fire to the Grecian fleet in order to put a 

 stop to the wanderings of their conquerors. Umbrictico, a small ill- 

 built episcopal town with only one church (the cathedral) and 2500 

 inhabitants, is situated a few miles W. from Giro on a steep hill in 

 which gypsum and alabaster are quarried. 



The north-western district is named from its chief town Nicasiro, 

 which is situated to the north-west of Catanzaro on the slope of a 

 mountain commanding extensive views of the plains mid the coast to 

 southward. The town gives title to a bishop, and has a population of 

 6600. In the castle, which is now in ruins, Henry, the eldest son of 

 tho emperor Frederick II., was confined on account of his taking 

 part with the Guelphs against his father. Among the other towns of 



