Travelling through memory and places of time

The province of Cosenza, the largest among Calabria's provinces, is a territory full of enormous cultural resources where anthropization processes which brought great values to the evolution of the region throughout history took place.
The evolution was slow but continuous and established fields and places extensively used and confirmed; the process lead to a landscape of the built environment through traces, signs and presences hugely important within the European artistic and architectural framework.
This role is actually being adopted by the Province through its assumptions and contents that are oriented towards recovering an identity that was forged by the past and is being witnessed through the province's historical and "living" anthropological monuments: the Occitan (in Guardia Piemontese) and Albanian culture (in Lungro, San Demetrio Corone, Santa Sofia d'Epiro, Spezzano Albanese, Civita and many others).

THE PAST

The events that characterised the province of Cosenza date back to a remote past whose beginning was marked by the first lithic manufactures and some rudimental though effective and functional metallurgical techniques. This is proved by palethnological discoveries and by the examination of the materials found, identified and later compared to production cultures; the examination is still being systematized as new finds that widen the current state of art are made.
It is difficult to date the prehistoric era in Calabria and in the province of Cosenza because of different methods employed, different interpretations, chronological position of finds and different cultural events being performed by contemporary groups in different geographical areas. However, our prehistoric era can be divided as follows:
The Lower Paleolithic (production of manufactures) generally spans the time from 2 million years ago until about 80,000 years ago; the Middle Paleolithic was the era when the Homo neanderthalensis thrived in Europe and many burial places identifying a kind of socio-cultural development were found and it broadly spanned until 35,000 years ago; the Upper Paleolithic (Cro-Magnon man and first likely artistic expressions) spans until 12-10,000 years ago and it is followed by the Mesolithic or Epipaleolithic era. The latter commonly identifies the transition period between the chipped stone and the polished stone age, until the last finds referred to cultural groups previous to the Neolithic.
Nomadic populations mainly committed to hunting left traces of stone manufactures and remains of their settlements.
The archeological areas are not so many because of the morphological changes the original environment underwent and the fact that the archeological research is still in progress. However, they are really interesting for preserving their intrinsic environmental characteristics.
In the towns of Tortora, Praia a Mare and Scalea we find pivotal archeological areas from the Paleolithic. Together with other sites in the region's territory and other important surveys on the Ionian side, they make up an archeological area located between the Thyrrenian and the mountain side, along the hills or internal water routes.
The paths of the rivers Noce and Lao are indicative of this condition because they enclose interesting human settlements in the North-West of Calabria; for example, the Romito's Paleo-Mesolithic site of Papasidero, 20 km away from the hinterland and famous for its extraordinary stone engravings of the "Bos Primigenius" and, in addition, the area of Praia a Mare where a continuous human presence was found from the Paleolithic to the whole length of the Neolithic.
The Neolithic, which is chronologically divided into Early, Middle and Late is usually dated around 7,000 BC in the Middle East and around 7,000 BC in Greece; in the South of Italy it spans the time from 7,000 BC and, more specifically, between 5,500 and 5,000 BC.-
Human communities started to use the polished stone after the raw and the chipped stone; from nomadic and food collectors, they became food's producers with the first agricultural processes. Permanent settlements were founded, ceramic manufactures were produced and animals used for work and consumption needs.

In Calabria, the Neolithic sites often overlap with those previous to the Paleolithic age:
Aiello, Amantea - Campora S. Giovanni, Belvedere Marittimo, Montalto Uffugo, Castiglione di Paludi, Papasidero-Grotta della Manca e Romito, Praia a mare-Grotta della Madonna, Roggiano Gravina-Castiglione, S. Maria del Cedro, Marcellina and Tarsia–Mazzolini are the main Neolithic settlements in the province of Cosenza.
In particular, the decorated ceramics with patterns imprinted before firing, as the ones found in Favella di Sibari, date back to the early Neolithic, while painted ceramics found in Cassano Ionio (Grotta di Sant’Angelo III), Papasidero (Grotta o Riparo del Romito), Praia a mare, Sibari etc. date back to Middle and Late Neolithic. -
The development of trade increased the use of internal communication routes.
During the Neolithic age, a higher number of finds in a large number of places shows a greater human presence.
There was a strong presence of obsidian in the guise of carved instruments, chips and production scraps in the above mentioned places and, moreover, inside the Grotte Pavolella in the town of Cassano Ionio, in the locality of Favella (Corigliano Calabro), in Roggiano Gravina and in the sites of Castiglione and Larderia.
Trade increased to overcome the province's geographical borders and to meet new cultures. To do so, new links with geographical areas located in the hinterland or on the coast were created; as a matter of fact, the valleys of rivers Coscile and Esaro were connected to Sibari's Ionic plain.
In this period, human settlements grew considerably. Human beings engaged in trade and commercial activities by establishing or improving communication routes and their related links within the territory.
After prehistory, there was a transition period conventionally called Protohistory. It covers the Eneolithic period (Copper age) between late Neolithic and early Bronze age (3,500 – 2,300 BC), the Bronze age (about 2300 – 1000 BC) and the very beginning of the Iron age (IX -VIII centuries BC).
The capacity of working metal facilitated an impressive technical progress that modified people of Calabria's lives, especially in terms of comparing different settlements and territory management.
In Southern Italy, the changeover from Neolithic to Eneolithic took place during the third millennium BC though it was not homogeneous because it was difficult to find and supply raw materials and, at the same time, it was hard to work them.
The culture of copper in Calabria derived mainly from Campania and Apulia, where raw materials and end products came from. The region lacked autonomous production processes and mainly used contributions coming from outside its territory. Thus, copper finds are not so many, even if we should mention those located in Grotta della Pavolella and S.Angelo III (both localities within the town of Cassano allo Ionio), Cleto, Dipignano, Marsilia (Morano), Grotte Cardini and Madonna (Praia a Mare), Roggiano Gravina and in the locality of Manche (Mormanno). In the latter the halberd and the triangular dagger were found.
If, on the one hand, the Eneolithic age is incomplete in terms of an overall archeological site frame, the Bronze age is, on the other, much richer in finds from the North of the Thyrrenian coast to the current province of Catanzaro.

During the Iron age some interesting settlements were founded on the Ionian side and this is proven by the necropolis in Spezzano Albanese, San Lorenzo and in the territory of Castiglione di Paludi. These settlements spreaded through the whole area of the province of Cosenza and, according to old literature, they had been established by pre-Hellenic populations, that is to say by peoples that inhabited the territory before the arrival of the Greeks: Bruttii (coming probably from Lucania), Choni, Oenotrians, Itali and Tirreni.

THE GREEK COLONIES

In the VIII century BC the Dorians started to colonize Calabria. The Ionians founded the first colony in Reggio Calabria (744 BC), the Achaeans established their settlements of Sibari and Crotone during the first years of the VIII century BC and the Locresi Opunzii founded Locri between 680 and 670 BC. -
The Greeks started to control the whole region by moving through water routes from the above places on the Ionian Coast towards the western coast within a frame of commercial exchanges with indigenous populations and Northern Calabria.
Sybaris spreaded along the Thyrrenian coast, so that it gained control over the whole province of Cosenza by founding new towns:
Clampetia in the territory of Amantea, Laos at the mouth of the river Lao, Pandosia close to Cosenza, at the inner extremity of the Crati valley and, finally, Scidros, not far from Belvedere Marittimo.
Such a colony would last for about six centuries, during which internal fights between Greek colonies themselves because of clear economic interests or indigenous populations within the territory and a new political and economic balance in the Mediterranean area brought to an end the Greek influence. The Greeks were permanently driven out by the Romans; the latters were obstructed in vain by the Bruttii because of their organizational and structural lacks and alliances that would turn out to be inappropriate.

The remains of the Greek Sybaris were uncovered in 1932 and the excavations began in 1969 revealed various town sectors which had developed according to a urban orthogonal grid attributed to Hippodamus of Miletus. The so called "Casa Bianca" (white house) excavation site has an area built during the IV century BC; this is called "Stombi" and it consists of a urban site rebuilt after 510 BC, where buildings and structures of the town as it used to be during the archaic age are visible. In the "Parco del Cavallo" (horse's park) excavation site we can see the remains dating back to the Roman age; among them, a theatre and a urban neighborhood along two main streets.

THE ROMAN AGE

The Romans sent an expedition against the Bruttii in 282 BC. The latters called on Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, to intervene, but he was defeated in 275 BC. - As a consequence, the Romans crucially entered the historical life of Calabria that, itself, tried to force them back by allying with the Carthaginians. The above alliance was in vain too since at the end of Punic Wars (202 BC) the Romans gained a strict and direct control over the places ruled by Bruttii as well as over the Greek colonies, in order to prevent them from recovering and strengthening.
A Romanization process was then initiated by the establishment of new Roman colonies alongside or replacing pre-existing Greek settlements. Bruttian culture vanished, the Greek one was absorbed; the economy and territorial management were radically transformed by the Romans through the use of pre-existing resources.
For using the soil and exploiting the territory without having an economic and productive plan, the Romans destroyed port structures, the agricultural economy and the complex network for internal exchanges. The latter was replaced by a road network supported by via Annia-Popilia, an internal road mainly devoted to military purposes (132 BC) and used for resource transfer from occupied lands and for new settlements' connection.
Because of land degradation and consequent economic crisis, populations fled to create new settlements halfway between the coast and the hinterland. As a consequence, the coastal economy disappeared in favor of agricultural and manufactured products, typical of places located on the hills or mountains.
Traces of the Roman presence are found in the Ionian territory of Greek colonies but also along the Crati valley and the Thyrrenian coastline, where the remains of agricultural settlements and transformation workshops were uncovered. Some other remains of the Roman institutional presence are visible in Cosenza. For example, the 'ad opus reticulatum' walls' structures, the remains of public buildings on top and at the bottom of Corso Telesio, the remains in the basements of old historical buildings and, finally, the remains of some necropolis in the area of the 'città nuova' (new town), beyond the Busento river. All in all, the 'Roman' dimension of the old Consentia is still to be unveiled.

THE MIDDLE AGES

Following the fall of the Western Roman empire in 476 AD (the Eastern Roman empire, whose capital was Byzantium, would survive for about one thousand years more and would then be replaced by the Ottoman empire), Italy and Calabria became battlegrounds and, at the same time, places that, after the Barbaric invasions, would attract political interests of the Byzantine empire and some external populations like the Goths, whose fights would leave permanent traces in the Ionic area of the province of Cosenza.
In that period Calabria fell under Byzantine rule, with the exceptions of the period in which Cosenza and the Northern part of the province were dominated by the Lombards until the IX century and the repeated offensive penetrations by Saracen groups who temporarily and alternatively occupied wide portions of the province, thus influencing settlements by forcing populations to proceed inwards, far from coastal areas.
The person who reconquered Calabria is Nikephoros Phokas, sent by the Byzantine emperor Basil I. He also reconstituted the important towns of Corigliano and Rossano. The latter, in particular, hosted one of the major personalities at that time: Saint Nilus the Younger.
Meanwhile, Calabria was 'invaded' by Eastern Christianity, following the iconoclastic movement that brought North-African and Middle-Eastern monks to the region from the VIII century AD. The region also imported from them rituals and linguistic features, and these influences would lead to the separation from the Roman Catholic church.
The Eastern tradition also brought benefits to local economy with the introduction of agricultural management techniques and sericultural production and also enhanced social aggregation between populations of the Greek or Greek-Bruttian areas that were already deeply fragmented because of historical conditions at that time.

Between the basin of the river Mercure and the medium/lower valley of the river Lao, Orsomarso- Aieta, we find the eparchy of Mercurion, which is composed of a series of places of worship typical of Eastern monasticism. In the eparchy we actually find humble buildings having mostly one nave and a central semicircular apse: the church S. Maria di Mercuri can be considered an example of that.
We also have examples of other similar typologies that differ from the above for having more than one abse or different plan; they are attributed to the style of the first Normans and can be found in the church located on the Monte Marco in Cassano allo Ionio, in the little Panaghia church in Rossano and in the church of the hospital in Scalea.
The refined and elegant Byzantine culture permeated architecture and would influence artistic life also during the Norman period, until the very end of the XIV century.
Among the most important monuments influenced by Byzantine art in the province of Cosenza we find unique pieces of oriental inspiration, like the San Marco church in Rossano.
In San Demetrio Corone, Saint Nilus the Younger founded in 905 AD a monastic order over a pre-existing oratory. The urban structure, in its actual state, is separated from the Church of S. Adriano (XII-XIII centuries) and is incomplete if compared to its original architectural structure; nevertheless, it represents an example of Romanesque-Latin architecture permeated by oriental tradition and significantly highlights the passage between the two opposite cultures in the province of Cosenza.
The rescuing process of Calabria following the complex series of events throughout the five centuries after the fall of the Western Roman empire, went on with the Normans. From 1052 they began conquering the region guided by Robert Guiscard and then by his brother Roger. Once the Norman dynasty had taken possession of the territory, a latinization process of Calabria was started. The major representatives of this process are the three main religious orders (Benedictines, Carthusians and Cistercians).
The church of S. Maria della Matina, in S. Marco Argentano, is considered to be the oldest Benedictine foundation in Calabria.
The Benedictine monastery of S. Maria Requisita in Luzzi, known as “la Sambucina”, was founded around 1140 and later became the first Cistercian building in Calabria (the Cistercians arrived in 1160 from the Casamari abbey).
The reform introduced by Joachim of Fiore originated from the Cistercians. The mystic was born in Celico between 1130 and 1135 and he was the founder of both the Abbey of Fiore and the monastery of Fonte Laurato in the territory of San Giovanni in Fiore.
Some outstanding examples of Norman architecture, in addition to the above references to religious buildings, can be found in S. Marco Argentano. Among them, we shall mention the so-called Drogone tower, which is one of the first examples of Norman buildings in the region after the Scribla's castle (known as 'motta').
Robert Guiscard was the one who erected the tower in 1048, even if according to other people it was built by the Drogone brothers who gave it their name. It is indeed a high cylindrical tower that underwent renovations and rebuildings by the Suevi, Angevines and later on by Aragons.
Underneath the cathedral of S. Marco Argentano is a crypt where we can identify various influences (Byzantine and Arabic-Norman). The materials used are stone and bricks and it stands on twelve pillars that sustain pointed arches with brick crosses.
The Norman architecture is a synthesis of Romanesque architecture and Eastern influences that shows how the Southern Byzantine area was slowly but continuously westernized.
The province of Cosenza, particularly on the Ionic coast, has some very interesting examples uniquely attributable to the above mentioned process.
Bartolomeo from Simeri (who possibly lived around 1050) built in Rossano one of the most famous monasteries of the region, S. Maria del Patir, an impressive church with three aisles and three apses. It highlights a moment of renewal for Norman architecture, even if its decorative language is clearly influenced by Eastern art.
The same attitude of the Normans, that is to say substantial concessions, agricultural economy revaluation and support to trade was then adopted by the Suevi who continued to enhance the region's economy by stimulating integration with the Jews in order to boost trade and financial initiatives.
The most interesting landmark of the Suevi domination over the territory is the castle of Cosenza. It was rebuilt under Frederick II, probably because the pre-existing structure had been destroyed or at least damaged by an earthquake in 1184. The castle still features nowadays one of its octagonal towers located on the southern side and the impressive rooms with ribbed crosses.
The fortress in Rocca Imperiale too was probably built under Frederick II, and then modified during the following centuries, as well as the picturesque fortress in Roseto Capo Spulico (Petrae Roseti), which also underwent several modifications throughout time.
The cathedral of Cosenza was rebuilt as well after the earthquake in 1184 and inaugurated in 1222 in the presence of the Emperor.
Inside the church, in the apse area, the simple and essential Cistercian art reveals itself; the archbishop Luca Campano, a monk from the Casamari abbey, greatly contributed to the definition of Cistercian art.

As precious as the above mentioned is the Cistercian abbey's chapter house (1222), a former Benedictine building founded by the Normans inside the monastery of S.Maria della Matina, rebuilt after the earthquake in 1184. The chapter house is divided by two central columns with leafy capitals carrying ribbed cross vaults.
Another example of Cistercian architecture is the Abbey of Fiore, whose founder was Joachim of Fiore, the inventor of a rule which was derived from the Cistercian rule. The abbey is another famous monument representing the culture and spirituality of Calabria: its refined architectural expression is shown through the structure of the apse and the crypts underneath.
Not as positive in Calabria as the previous dominations was the House of Anjou from the XIII century. Under their domination, the region's society and economy wrecked because of dynastic wars and because feudal powers and internal divisions prevailed; all these factors lead to an economic depression caused by local baronages' large landed estate spreading widely and by very high taxes. The consequences for Calabria were adverse. The town of Cosenza managed to somehow preserve its autonomy thanks to lands which belonged to the town itself that allowed sovereigns to capitalize on wealthy dealers' financial benefits and on loans granted by bankers.
The Angevine period did not leave any great buildings in the province. However, some interventions to pre-existing works were made and they can be considered landmarks of their presence.
In the cathedral of Rossano we find some architectural elements such as the ogival doors, the three abses, the ribbed half-crosses and the external buttresses having the typical Angevine architectural themes and languages.
The architectural style of the church of S. Maria della Consolazione is also interesting. Filippo Sangineto started building it in 1342 by enlarging the little church of Santa Maria dei Franchi (1052) and it was finished by 1380; the decoration types in the rose window, the portal and the presbytery area show how close this church is to the French Gothic style.
The marble sarcophagus in Sangineto is stylistically close to the royal Angevine tombs in Naples (S. Chiara - S. Giovanni a Carbonara).
The castle (Angevine aisle with ribbed crosses on consoles) and the cathedral of Cosenza (Queen’s chapel) also have some French architectural elements; they are both notable though rare examples within Calabria’s architecture.

THE MODERN PERIOD

The period of social and economic uncertainty continued with the Aragon dynasty, which began with Alfonso the Magnanimous (V of Aragon, I king of Naples and Sicily). The Aragons succeeded the Angevines and dominated the reign of Naples until 1504.
During this brief though significant lapse of time, many farmers’ revolts broke out. Particularly famous is the revolt lead by Antonio Centelles in 1458-59 that was brutally suppressed by Ferdinand I of Aragon also in the province of Cosenza. The revolt was followed by other military interventions to put down the conspiracy of barons (1485) and by logical social consequences. Some attempts were made to defend the rights of weaker categories by modestly supporting economic initiatives. The situation did not turn up nor the economic processes that had taken place with the Suevi were stimulated. The main reason behind that was feudalism, backed by French influences, which prevented social participation, because what feudalists wanted was to safeguard their own rights.
During the same lapse of time, many Albanian refugees came to Calabria after escaping from the Ottoman invasion. Albanians were welcomed by Alfonso I of Aragon and were granted lands, particularly in the province of Cosenza, in return for their loyalty to the Sovereign and commitment to the defense of the ‘crown’ against the Turkish empire’s expansion goals.
The architecture in this period is mainly characterized by fortresses because of external and internal defense needs, the latters being aimed at protecting the territory against possible contrasts with subject populations.
Within the province of Cosenza the castles of Castrovillari, Corigliano Calabro and Belvedere were erected, the castle in Rocca Imperiale was enlarged and new fortresses started to be built on the coast; the latters would be later completed and renovated during the Spanish period in order to defend the territory against the attacks from the Mediterranean.
Such an attitude showed the Aragons’ concern about the defense of a reign that the French had already fought over, feudal barons threatened from the inside and the Ottoman power and pirates were ready to attack.
 

This period is characterized by the so-called Late Gothic style, which can be easily detected in the last period of the Aragon domination, when the structural and formal schemes that had been typical of the architecture between XII and XIV centuries were abandoned.
Building production conformed to a style of Neapolitan inspiration and began to propose Durazzo’s or Catalan patterns that are now visible especially in wealthy people’s private houses with their open grand staircases, portals with segmental arcades and in the use of regular ribbed meshes as in the façades (Palazzo Falvo, Palazzo Sersale and others in Cosenza).
Other architectural examples are now visible thanks to, among other ‘intellectual’ commissioners, the Dominican order. In the convent of Cosenza the Dominicans propose a cloister with octagonal columns and the chapter house’s segmental portal that is inspired by the patterns wisely followed in the reign’s capital, Naples.
The above examples showed that the Gothic style had been abandoned and overcome because of an ongoing overall renewal process and because of the upcoming events that would indirectly involve Calabria in a vast system of European interests.
Following the conflicts between the French and the Spanish caused by the French sovereigns Charles VIII (1495) and Louis XII (1499/1500), which ended with the victory of Ferdinand II The Catholic, king of Spain, and the political extinction of the Aragon dynasty, Naples became the Spanish viceroyalty’s capital and Calabria a Southern province of the same reign.
The presence of the Spanish sovereigns, that is to say of a central governing power, more solid both on a political and on a military level, did not produce any positive changes in the territorial management of Calabria because of the Spanish viceroys’ centralized policy that addressed all the resources to the region of Naples. The provinces were dominated by barons who acted through feudal officers that were delegated to directly administrate justice and to be responsible for financial management; as a consequence, many abuses were carried out and many taxes including gifts to the Spanish crown were imposed.
Many areas of the region suffered the infeudation of lands; only towns that were directly governed by the Crown eluded the process because of the high ransoms paid to the sovereigns.
Such a condition also brought to the impoverishment of the countryside that became a land of subsistence.
In this period the silk industry, which had been a famous local secular heritage, disappeared due to too high taxes and to the lack of capital investments that could fight off competition from outer markets.
In addition, there was a constant fear about Saracen and Turkish incursions that forced the reign into building a system of defense along the Southern part of the territory. This system had been created during the XI and XII centuries in order to stem frequent incursions from Saracens and pirates. Later on, the Angevines drew up a complete defense plan, though it would be partially implemented and only involve Apulia and the Ionic side because of political contrasts and wars waged under their domination.
The project of controlling the coastal territory and of building or completing the fortresses was naturally restarted under the Spanish domination because the territory was then also threatened by the Turkish fleet in the Mediterranean. As a matter of fact, the viceroy Peter of Toledo in 1532 issued the first decrees to build sighting towers on the sea against maritime attacks. A massive defense programme was launched throughout the reign and the Royal Court ruled that 'Universities' would have to fortify at their expenses by building a high number of watchtowers along the reign's coastline.
Fabrizio Pignatelli, around the half of the XVI century, began the reconnaissance and delineation of the defensive system, set the building and architectural rules for square and cylindrical towers, and functionally divided them into Saracen (also known as 'cavallare') towers, alarm towers and defense towers.
The viceroy Afán de Ribera adopted the same regulations in 1563, until the defensive system was completed in the XVII century and it also absorbed pre-existing defensive structures. In Latin Calabria, which corresponded to the province of Cosenza, around the half of the XVIII century, there were 36 watchtowers and several castles and fortresses; most of them is nowadays well-preserved and clearly shows the readjustments made during the XVI century:
Torre San Giovanni in Amantea, Torre ‘Spaccata’ in Amendolara and Torre di Albidona with its distinctive circular plant and cylinder developing over a truncated conical base; Torre di Fiuzzi in Praia a Mare, Torre Talao in Scalea with its quadrangular plant with a 'shoe' raising up marked by tapered embrasures along the overhung top; finally, the fortresses later enlarged and restored such as the castle in Belmonte Calabro, Castello della Valle in Fiumefreddo Bruzio, Castello Ruffo in San Lucido and the vigorous castles in Amantea and in Rocca Imperiale, which are real walled citadels.
Nevertheless, these fortifications could not prevent the attacks from the Turkish (Barbarossa in 1545, Mustafa in 1550 and Dragut in 1565) even after the battle of Lepanto (1571), because the coastline was attacked by the Turkish admiral Scipione Cicala (Cigalazade Yusuf), better known as Sinan Pasha (1593). He was born in Messina from a Genoese family. He went to fight in the Ottoman ranks, thus being considered a 'renegade Christian' like the Calabrians Euldi Alì, a fleet admiral, and Uluccialy, the great captain of the Turkish fleet before Sinan.
Apart from continual wars in the Mediterranean, other negative factors were the expulsion of the Jews from the reign (1540), the extermination of the Waldenses in Guardia Piemontese (1560-61), the incursions of 'bandits' often willing to involve farmers, as in the case of Marco Berardi (1560-63), the so-called «re Marcone» (buried in Cosenza, inside the crypt of the church San Francesco d'Assisi), natural adversities (the earthquakes in 1658 and in 1659), famines and plagues that weakened even more the region's population. The insurrectional attempt lead by Tommaso Campanella (1599) and the rebellion headed by Masaniello (1647), gave the population of the region the possibility of redemption, later denied by the Spanish who put down the revolts.
On the other hand, humanist and scientific culture strikingly developed for the presence of excellent characters recognized on a European scale like Bernardino Telesio, the above mentioned Tommaso Campanella and many other men of letters, philosophers and scientists. They all contributed to create academic clubs in Cosenza such as the Accademia dei Costanti, the Accademia dei Pescatori Cratilidi (both hosted in the town's cathedral) and the Accademia Cosentina that is still alive and active within the social and cultural landscape of the province.
This strong cultural turmoil did not influence the social and productive frame of Calabria because of the obvious problems linked to the struggle for survival.

Unlike what is said before, it is important to underline that, as far as the dominant power's architecture is concerned, we have some notable and numerous examples; this is due both to the sovereigns' wish to be represented and to the attempt to persuade the populations to accept the terms imposed by the Crown.
In general, the architecture in that period has some interesting examples of religious buildings, a few public houses and many private buildings showing the presence of feudalism in every place of the region.
The Calabrian master architects in the first half of the XVI century used the language of Renaissance architecture in a limited though well-balanced way, thus proposing sober and completed works.
The cloisters of the Virgins' convent and the convent of S.Francesco di Paola, also in the town of Cosenza, show a new quest and formally striking results.
Palazzo Spinelli, former ‘Cosentino’ and located in Aieta, features an interesting façade with windows decorated in stone and a central loggia with five arches sustained by Tuscan columns with a balustrade.
Public buildings, as in the case of Palazzo dei Presidi in Cosenza, are also adapted to the new language of the Renaissance in an essential way, showing at the same time new forms of expression.
The evolution of architecture went on. Towards the end of the XVI century the classical patterns, especially as for the religious architecture, absorbed new contents showing a synthesis between geometrical parts and decorations. Many churches of the province that date back to the end of the XVI century are good examples of that: they have beautiful portals with round arches framed by columns or fluted semi-columns, or twisted columns with entablatures sustaining multiple cornices and stone decorations. These elements determine the Late-Renaissance period and already foreshadow the early Baroque.
In the following century (XVII) the plastic evolution process of the new Baroque season was completed. The evolution is visible in the monumental complex of San Francesco di Paola and the façade of the church Madonna di Monte Vergine, in the town of Paola. The Spanish influence is also visible in the sumptuous unfinished façade of the church S.Maria della Serra in Montalto Uffugo and in the churches in Rogliano, an importante village of the Pre-Sila (an area just below the Sila plateau) with their portals and scenographies. There, a school of hard-working specialists well-known throughout the province of Cosenza, left the experience and great manual skills of marble masters.
Other aspects of Baroque artistic patterns, as far as the interior is concerned, are visible in the wonderful spatial configurations inside the chapels of SS. Rosario, in the Dominican convent church and in the Confraternita di S. Caterina d'Alessandria inside the church of S. Francesco d'Assisi, both in Cosenza.
After the end of the XVII century, the Baroque themes underwent some changes that, similarly, affected local historical events, for it was time for new actors to show up in the history of Calabria.
Nor the brief Austrian domination (1707/1734) that succeeded the Spanish dynasty after the war of the Spanish succession brought changes to social and economical events of the region.

THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

Charles III of Spain was crowned as the king of Naples in 1734. He attempted to improve the agricultural resources and to restore Southern finances. Ferdinand IV followed the same strategy by introducing new elements in the management of the reign. With the aim of making lands more productive, he used the rich heritage belonging to the Church of Calabria by earning ecclesiastical goods through a series of measures that lead to the creation of the Cassa Sacra (Sacred Counter, 1784-96) consequently to the severe earthquake of 1783.
The objective was to restore Calabrian economy and to ensure a fairer distribution of lands.
But the reform did not bring any benefits and, moreover, the region suffered an Anti-Jacobin reaction by the 'sanfedisti' after the proclamation of the short-lived republic of Naples in 1799.
The architecture of 18th century started to lose the wealth, grandeur and plasticity typical of the previous century's ornamentation. The XVI century's part remained unchanged though being simplified in contents and made more rigid for undergoing a Classical revision that re-elaborated original expressions and reduced them to an essential and predictable minor decorations.
Most of the churches and private buildings in the province of Cosenza underwent a revision process and were adapted to the new vision inspired by the Enlightenment Spirit. Such vision flattened, modified and transformed the architectural style by limiting and, in many cases, radically transforming each original expressive value.

The region's organization was substantially modified with the French occupation by Joseph Bonaparte (1806/1808) and the end of feudalism followed, under the reign of Joachim Murat, by an overall civic re-planning through the abolition of the feudatories' legal abuses even if, obviously, the aristocrat's economic power did not vanish.
Besides, a long and dramatic guerrilla (Southern brigandage) flared up against the French government. The guerrilla was supported by the Bourbon court who had take refuge in Sicily but it was afterwards brutally put down by the French army.
The Bourbons' return (second restoration) almost blocked the re-organization process and the reforms introduced under the French domination, thus feeding social and political tensions. Notwithstanding, the events all around Europe and the new liberal patterns of many Calabrian people from different social classes who lead the liberal movements from 1815 to 1860, marked the starting point of a new process that would turn into a new national political situation within a few decades. In July 1860, when Garibaldi landed in Calabria, the region joined national assimilation movements of Italy, ended with the declaration of Italy's unity.
However, the dark period did not end since the whole regional territory was the scene of the severe repression of brigandage (1861-66) and, after the nation's unification, Calabria was still backward and poor and it showed structural and managerial problems for a number of factors and complex reasons.
When the French arrived and during the second Bourbon restoration, the XIX century's architecture underwent further changes in expressive contents. Neoclassicism became the reference model because of its simplicity, somehow linked to economical reasons. The Enlightenment vision in the XVIII century had already started the revival process of architecture through schematizing Late-Baroque models by proposing classically inspired architectures, without more contents or patterns, especially as far as religious buildings are concerned.
The reference models were based on classical orders (especially Tuscan in Southern Italy): large cornices, regular gables, essential decorations, plain façades with square windows and entrances preceded by balconies overhanging over columns; these are the leitmotivs of that period's architecture.
A canonical example of the above patterns is represented by the building of Cosenza's grammar school 'Telesio', former Teatro S. Ferdinando.
Later on, as time went by and after Italy's unification, models diversified from one another by absorbing Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance patterns that, together with the underlying classicism, produced both showy, composite buildings and rich expressions.
These features were to be shared by buildings that had to be built, renovated, recomposed or enlarged according to the above mentioned style patterns. The building legacy of this period is undifferentiated and anonymous, aimed at representing a system of power which was unable to adapt to the needs of a highly compromised society, looking for new contents and based on the sole need of reflecting the new state after the unification process.
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Through the above brief report, which can be considered as a moment of reflection on ancient events that took place in Calabria and in the province of Cosenza in particular, I tried to highlight the huge heritage of values stored in the territory as centuries went by.
This heritage is made up of experiences, intelligence, industriousness, deep religiosity and culture that shaped through sacrifices and often dramatic events, though remarkable and essential to define the qualities the province acquired throughout centuries.
All this is offered both concretely and openly, through material landmarks that are still alive and well-preserved, to the future of our memory.

Architect Fulvio Terzi