9LD 5RPD ‡ &DPLJOLDWHOOR 6LODQR &6 ,WDO\ WHO H ID[ ‡ FHOO ZZZ VDSHULHVDSRULGLFDODEULD LW ‡ ODGHD #DOLFH LW
Greek language And culture And latin soul After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the waters of the Mare Nostrum (our sea) as the ancient Romans used to call the Mediterranean sea are no longer presided, and so piracy restarts in full strength. The Byzantines, more than others give life to raids, assaulting in open seas the defenceless ships and on the coasts, the fishermen. In 534 A.D. the civil wars between the Goths, give an excuse to the emperor of the East, Giustinian I, to intervene in Italy so as to complete the reconquest of the western part of the empire. The Byzantines find in the Bruzio the cultural common roots of the Magna Grecae where the Latin soul and the Greek one cohabit even after the fall of the Roman empire. In 535 A.D. the Greek troops commanded by Belisario and Narsete move in arms, from Constantinople and after landing in Sicily, meeting no resistance and thus conquering Syracuse and Palermo, cross the Strait and reach Reggio. In the Long land every resistance is broken down harshly and the Eastern imperials pillage even the churches. In 554 A.D. the emperor Giustinian extends the Byzantine law to Italy and the extreme part of the peninsula becomes a colony to exploit in favour of the East. In 603 A.D. the Bruzio is under the complete control of the imperials who take men and women into slavery to relegate them in the Nuova Roma (New Rome) Constantinople, and then sell them off to the Arabs who take them away to their countries. In the 7th Century the great Arab nomads, who came from the deserts of the nearby East, united under one single flag, and go in search of means of subsistence outside their own territories. They render unstable the Byzantine defences, convinced of being the real representatives of the true faith and to be beholders of heavenly support in the search of their Mediterranean plan. The Byzantines were rather suspicious, also because, the Moslems were starting to display their fleet, built in the middle east dockyards which were supplied with crews of made up of Syrians, Palestinians and Lebanese. The Bruzio Long land, starts to prepare itself in welcoming waves of hermits
PENTEDATTILO RC 5
A sequence of wars destined to break up dominations and to overwhelm dynasties In the course of the ten iron centuries, as Emilio Barillaro defined them, one of the major experts in art, archaeology and culture of Calabria; slender galleys and Turkish and Berber vessels that at first hoisted the green flags of the Prophet and then the red flags with the half-moon, bring forth from the intense blue of the Mediterranean, mourning and ruins onto the coasts of the Christians infidels. From the 8th to the 14th Century, on the marvellous beaches, bays and high cliffs of the Bruzio, from the galleys over forty metres long and over six metres wide, with one or two masts bearing Latin sails,with 25 or 30 oars each side, banners in the wind Moslem troops and knights, land. Fernand Braduel, the great scholar who has revealed to the world the culture and connections of the Mediterranean countries, said «at the first slash of sabre by the Arabs, everything crashed down forever: Greek language and philosophy, western organisation, all was lost forever. It’s as if, one thousand years of history had not taken place». The Saracen raids are the «tragic calamity of the Byzantine domain and of the Basilian art in the Bruzio, (…) they compel the riverside population, thriving especially in the Magna Grecian period, to retreat from the coasts and take refuge in the most hidden recesses up on the mountains, on inaccessible slopes, and to set up fortifications, bastions, towers, any sort of stronghold in which to escape from the assaults of the ferocious Moslem hordes. (…) The golden ages of the italic civilization, that had flourished on the horizontal planes of the wonderful marine expanses, will find their complete metamorphose in the iron ages of the Turkish rule, founded on the vertical lines of the civilization of cliffs and towers». From 754 A.D. for the Byzantines and from 774 A.D. for the Longobards the bruzie lands are named Calabria, and become scene to many battles and the bulwark of Christian defence; here begins the long Mediterranean Moslem/Christian conflict, it’s «the never-ending night», and whosoever «had the strength and the means, started to build new villages down in the ravines, or on those mountains,or in those forests, that in mournful emer-
CORIGLIANO CS
Ducal castle (14th century)
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SAN LUCIDO CS
The fortress Nicetina Feudal castle of the Ruffo (11th 14th century)
the bruzie coasts and they also organise a naval team which cruises the Strait of Messina. From the 9th to the 11th Century in the harsh, wild woods on the imposing mountain slopes, on the summits of the hills distant seven hundred kilometres from the coasts of the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas and in the inner part of Calabria, watchtowers and castles, that seem to scrape the sky are erected, to protect the Greek, Bruzie and Roman very ancient cities. On the Ionian coast, Crotone and Squillace, situated in defendable positions are able to resist the Saracen attacks and as the plain of Sibari depopulates, the hill sides of Rossano and Cassano thrive and grow at the expense of Thurio (Sibari) which disappears forever under the waters of the Crati river. Catanzaro, Stilo and many other settlements become isolated from the rest of the world and from each other and along the Tyrrhenian coast the only inhab-
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ited centres that are still in their original place are Amantea, Nicotera, San Lucido, Scilla and Tropea, because they are endowed with fortifications. The rich plains of Gioia Tauro and Sant’Eufemia are completely abandoned and Jules Gay the great scholar of the Byzantine empire, writes that between 867 A.D. and 1071 A.D. the Calabrese population goes through alternating phases of «prosperity and misfortune». In the middle Age, «until the unification comes into being, and this so happens with the final Norman triumph, we face a swarming of independent forces, of various energies from the coastal cities, the duchies, the dynasties, single rulers, monks and abbots, soldiers of fortune, all driven to perpetuate into the coming years, the echoes of their bellicose gestures: people from Capua, Benevento, Gaeta and Amalfi, Byzantines and Saracens will turn these lands into a sort of conquest zone».
TROPEA VV
Defensive system tropeano (9th 10th 15th 16th century)
The norman conquest They are not lacking in courage those Norman squads that come down in those small villages of Calabria where Greek, Latin and Arab is spoken. Soon the bruzie lands get to know the violent temperament, the diplomatic abilities and the unappeasable greediness for land and wealth of the Altavillas. It’s the Calabria of the peasants who are revolting against the cruelties of the Byzantine patricians, while awaiting that the weapons and armies of Roberto il Guiscardo and his brother Ruggiero il Normanno dictate the laws and make history. The first actions that the men from the North undertake, get caught up in the disputes between Longobards, Byzantines and Moslems, in which meanwhile, also join in, the papacy’s reasons for wanting to reduce the influence of the two empires both eastern and Germanic in the south of Italy. The local lords, economically poor and weak militarily, are always at war with one another and with the Longobard Principalities of Benevento, Salerno and Capua and with the Byzantine empire. In the Norman knights vanguard that reach Calabria in the first half of the 11th Century, there is an inborn wish to settle down in those stretches of country that are not barbarian. The first cadets of Normandy, in search of fortune in the Bruzio, spur others to reach them; they are elated by the tales that celebrate the lands of the Magna Graecian civilization and of the western spirituality, attracted also by the gentle climate, the wheat, the vines and the olive trees. The ranks of soldiers are followed by groups of men in search of new acquaintances, who find in the Bruzio according to Georg Ostrogorski in his History of the Byzantine empire, a Calabro-Greek administrative system «unequalled, with an articulated bureaucratic apparatus composed of specialized public servants, a superb military technique, an elaborate legal status, and a highly developed economic and financial system». According to the Norman historian, the monk Goffredo Malaterra, ever since the Norman conquest, the Long land is made up of «civitates et fortissima castra» (population and strong encampments). His chronicle describes the Byzantine settlements,
MORANO CALABRO CS
Norman castle (11th 14th 15th century)
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The Altavilla clan THE GREAT NORMAN PLAN: A STATE THAT IS ALMOST AN EMPIRE The Norman politics in Calabria aim to create a multi-racial State where different races, cultures and traditions may coexist peacefully. From this comes forth «a complex civilization, different from any other; Arab in the organization, Norman in the military structure and Byzantine for the language and culture». The men from the North, writes don Nicola Ferrante, a priest from Reggio who studies the Byzantine world in Calabria, «are profoundly religious, and after the first encounter in the war for take-over, with the Greek element, they realize that, that perfect bureaucratic organization and more even that cult, with the striking rites and those profound and mysterious icons, touch even their Christian heart. So they become very generous with the Latin, but they do not want to forget the Greeks. They start rebuilding some of their monasteries, abandoned because of the Arabs, and start building new ones too». In Calabria, the catholic religion with Latin and Greek rites coexist with the Moslem one. «Friendship and even sometimes consideration are not infrequent between Arabs and Christians». Ruggero, robed in the Arab dalmatic, is surrounded by Francs, Latin, Greeks, Longobards and Saracens who «didn’t have to feel like strangers or perceive any prevarications from anyone of the other races, but, according to the project of the men from the North’s great earl, had to feel like people of one single nation». At the feet of the feudal castles, Greek cities, Moslem villages, Longobard colonies, with the roads occupied by Pisani, Genoans, Amalfitans and to the sound of ringing bells and the monotonous songs of the muezzin on small minarets, many people can be seen dressed with the Moslem mantle and turban, the Norman mail, the long Greek tunic, and the short Italian cowl. The presence of the Altavillas determines a significant event for the artistic history of the South, and according to Giuseppe Occhiato, historian of the men from the North, right in Calabria originates a new architecture of Norman stamp, the Cal-
MILETO VV
Abbey of the Trinità (12th century)
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Aloft to the left:
ROBERTO D’ALTAVILLA IL GUISCARDO
(Hauteville 1015 – Cefalonia, 17 july 1085)
In low to the left:
RUGGERO I D’ALTAVILLA IL NORMANNO
(Hauteville 1040 – Mileto, 22 june 1101) Aloft to the right:
RUGGERO I
REX SICILIAE, CALABRIAE, APULIAE (Mileto 22 december 1095 – Palermo, 26 february 1154)
abrese Romanesque precursor to the Italian one, and it fits in as central character in the artistic fervour that renovates the face of Europe in the 11th Century. Francesco Abato writes in his History of the Art in Southern Italy that «Calabria manages to tries out solutions that are very complex and registers changes in a larger measure than that of any other region in all the Mediterranean area». In the Benedictine abbeys of Santa Maria
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di Sant’Eufemia (1062 A.D.) and Trinità di Militello (1063 A.D.) we recognise the works of the abbot and architect Roberto di Grandmesnil, who came from Saint-Evroul-enOuche. «Administrative organization, economic effort, religious politics, figurative production, all tell us about the vitality and individuality of Calabria in the contest of the Norman State». In the new off- springs of the Altavillas clan, Ruggero is the young-
est, and according to Pierre Aubè, in his studies about the Normans in the Middle Ages: «he is a fearless knight, not yet twenty years of age, who receives, from his elder brother Robert, the town-square of Mileto, starting point for a thorough erosion of the Greek supremacy». Guiscardo on his part is evermore involved in the territories of Puglia, and Ruggero finds himself often alone in Calabria in his war against the Byzantines, and
ARENA VV
Norman (12th 13th century) castle originally reconstructed by the angevin (14th 15th century)
MALVITO CS
Tower of the norman castle (11th 12th century)
in so doing tries to keep to himself all the conquests obtained. The Norman religious toleration. promotes the return of Calabria in «the circle of the western civilization» in terms of loyalty to the Roman tradition and the restoration of the imperial idea. Ruggero chooses the little Byzantine kastron of Mileto as capital of the county and as his usual place of residence, on the Poro and here conceives the great design to conquer the nearby Arab island. The walls are fortified, the city is adorned and elevated to the rank of a Norman capital, and from here are developed the ideas for the ecclesiastic organization of the region and its latinization, to «assert the temporal powers of the pope upon Southern Italy, not yet manifestly ascertained through the false donation by Constantine». The sons of Tancredi d’Altavilla are
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MESA DI SANTA SEVERINA KR
Norman castle (1076 - 13th 1496 - 17 th 18th century)
the ÂŤreferees in an immense cause, secular arm of a papacy intent on disrupting the traditional politic equilibriumsÂť. In the small towns of Calabria, Latin churches are added to the ones of Greek-Byzantine rites, and on the opposite side the Norman masts are raised: the new cathedrals and the castles are the tangible signs
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of the dominating power, on the mese of Santa Severina and Gerace the two powers overlap, on one side the religious and Byzantine one of the splendid churches of Greek rite and on the other the civil and Latin one of the castles achieved by Roberto il Guiscardo. None of the two powers, civil and religious, Latin and Byzantine, gives in to the other. The adventure of the men from the North continues with the Calabro-Norman Ruggero II. The rex Siciliae, Calabriae, Apuliae, loves Calabria, column to his power; he is an obstinate and
determined politician, capable of speaking and making himself heard even from his avowed enemies: the pope and the Germanic and Byzantine emperors. Based on the oriental basileus model, as a true sovereign he organizes a new State, founded on a solid bureaucratic apparatus and imposes himself along the borders of three other worlds. He dominates his vassals, creates a centred government, proclaims new laws and leaves to his successors, a State which is almost an empire for the extension of the conquered lands.
The castles of Frederick II AUSTERE CHARACTER AND STRONG AND BARE SIMPLICITY Frederick II of Sweden (1194 A.D.-1250 A.D.), takes to the apogee the Norman project, which changes the history of the region «in terms of political/administrative, social, cultural and geographic unity». One hundred years ahead of his time, Frederick works in a passionate interlacing of elements in the western culture and in the eastern one, protecting in the same manner catholic and Moslem scholars, erudite Hebrews, and Provençal poets, with a personality which «dominates his contemporaries». «The creativity of his spirit» allows him to build in such a splendid manner, stone fortresses, and as heir to the Norman and Byzantine world, «sows the fertile seeds of new art era». According to Georgina Masson in her Frederick II of Sweden, the emperor brings «order wherever he goes, inspiring and imposing obedience», he cares about improving and enlarging the system of fortifications that was left to him from his Norman predecessors, and, to the pope’s great disappointment, he has no intention of separating the imperial crown from the realm of southern Italy. He works in such a way as to cancel the feudal oppositions, bringing down every lordly fortress in the realm and adopting a system of government which completes and rationalizes whatever innovation comes from the political experience of the Altavillas. «Whosever wasn’t endowed with such a strong character as Frederick would have given up the idea of restoring order in that rebel realm and would have renounced at the creation of stately strongholds all over the country to weaken the power of the feudal barons». With the Edict of Capua, Frederick imposes the restitution of the castles that were built arbitrarily by vassals o built on stately land after the death of William II (1189 A.D.), to dismantle or to turn them into strongholds for the crown, which had to maintain them with armed men and provisions. The improvements in the machines and in the besieging systems around 1200 A.D., decree the failure of the Norman structures, which are reinforced by the Swedish emperor, after
COSENZA
Norman-swabian castle
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Calabria the preferred scenario for pillages and engagements by the angevins and aragonese CONFINED BETWEEN AN OPPRESSIVE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT THE BARON’S EXCESSIVE POWER AND THE RAIDS FROM PIRATES AND MOSLEM CORSAIRS With the arrival of the French, Charles I d’ Anjou-king of Naples and Sicily from 1266 A. D. to 1285 A.D. - who came into power thanks to the protection given to him by the pope Clement IV and who preferred him to the prince Manfred, natural son of the Hohenstaufen, tries to improve the political system inherited by the Swedish. He puts the thick feudality at the monarchy’s service, and according to Emile G. Lèonard in his Les angevins de Naples, «embodies firmly into the state land or into the lordly feudalities, the administrative freedoms of the cities and intensifies, not without inconveniencies, the State’s participation in the economic life in a merchantlike prospective. He also continues the Swedish course of action in the care for roads, ports, fairs and markets». During the Angevins period, survival in Calabria is hard,while decadence progresses, and the population is reduced to a servile condition and must undergo the feudal arbitration and in the region there aren’t any big cities anymore. In 1276 A. D. in the justiciary of Val di Crati and Terra Giordana the most important city is Rossano with a fertile territory, irrigated by streams and torrents, and produces oil and every kind of fruit. Crotone is in the centre of a plain, fertile and well irrigated, «a good port, certainly less efficient than the ancient Greek wharf, but still sufficient for small ships». The third city in order of greatness is Geneocastro (Belcastro), that at 533m a.s.l. dominates the river Crocchio, which with other torrents washes a large territory that is fertile in grain and chestnut groves and also rich in pastures. Bisignano dominates a land rich in waters and soil products. Strongoli stands on a rock and overlooks a territory that is rich in soil products, pastures and woods, and is washed by the river Vit-
PRAIA A MARE CS
Fortress angevin of Praja (14th century)
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The feudal overlords and the universities strengthen towers and castles and erect fortifications With the Aragonese, perils and violence do not end; famine is added to the growing desolation and malaria grows as large zones in the plains are left to the overflowing of torrents. In order to survive, the population forced to defraud in the numbering of the fuochi while the crown extends the already numerous privileges to the feudal class and to the clergy, while the State’s income is insufficient for the economics needs of a prestigious foreign policy and to suppress the frequent baronial rebellions. The external threats continue with the frequent Moslem raids from their ports in North Africa and from the Middle East come the Turkish and Byzantine galleys, sailing the seas at six or nine miles per hour, with the Christian captives at the oars rowing at the beat of the drums from their gaolers who walk up and down the alley of the galleys whipping them relentlessly. When these vessels reach the Calabrese coasts they raid the settlements situated on the Ionian and on the Tyrrhenian seas . The Aragonese try to avoid rebuilding the big new feuds that are capable of competing with the crown and always ready to rise up whenever the favourable occasion occurs .They also raise the tributes that encumber on circulating goods and the duties imposed on food especially those of great consumption, such as oil and wine, and they also resume the notorious collections. Naturally those who pay the most are usually the poor. The one person who speaks up against the high number of privileged and on the meanness of the tax agents, is Saint Francis of Paola; he doesn’t hesitate in denouncing the abuse of power committed at the expense of the poor and in accusing the Aragonese of misgovernment: in his letter written in 1447 A.D. to his influent friend Simeone d’Alimena he remarks that «a gentleman from Naples, counter of the fuochi in the Province (….) is an annoying person with no discretion, (…) such a man with no reason or sense of charity will be
STILO RC
The Stefanina Entrance in the city walls (11th century)
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tect Francesco di Giorgio Martini «the moderns have found once more an instrument of such violence that against it, arms, studies and bravery are to no avail, and in a short time every great tower is razed to the ground and certainly all other machinery futile and superfluous can appeal». Soon the harsh fortresses are reconverted to a mere residential function, «more in harmony with its guests», they are adequate for celebrations of feasts, banquets, dancing and tournaments that compose an indispensable element in the uses and political language of the Renaissance period. During the festivities in the fortresses «the presence of ladies -in-waiting, in
other words the women who at court have the duty of enlivening with their presence the time of day of the lord, do not go unnoticed. The mundane circumstances break the monotony and daily dullness, and coincide with the arrival of distinguished guests or special family recurrences such as christenings, marriages or death, in which every illustrious family come together in the castle’s great hall showing off the riches and nobility through the recollection of glorious undertakings, the visualization of coats-of-arms frescoed on the walls, and the family ancestral portraits» Generally the main hall in the
ALBIDONA CS
Tower of Piano dei Monaci (16th century)
residence is kept free of encumber, and whenever needed trestle-tables are set up, surrounded by chairs, stools and benches while, a sideboard, richly draped to display the silverware and best tableware that in this case is called of parade.
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Stories of pirates and corsairs COASTAL TOWERS A FORMIDABLE DEFENCE RANGE Ever since 1535 A.D. the name Saracen will also indicate Turks and Berbers who continue the undertakings of their predecessors. The continuous Turkish raids never encounter any obstacles on land or sea; the naval defensive presence on the Tyrrhenian and on the Ionian is unknown, the garrisons and the coastal fortifications are lacking in manpower and badly armed; they usually have access to only one cannon, but no gunpowder or cannon balls. As soon as the enemy was sighted, militiamen, tower men and horsemen, had the simple job of warning the population of the imminent danger, in order to allow them to leave their villages and take refuge on the mountains, leaving to the Turkish and Berber crews all that they could not take away with them. The defence of the rumi is disconnected and contradictory and the chronicle of the raids is enriched with stories of bloody battles, of legendary characters surrounded by myth; of stories of pirates and corsairs, of men so faraway and different, of adventures such as those of Kamal Rais, known as the Camalicchio, the nightmare of the Sicilian, Calabrese and Pugliesi population in the first years of the 16th Cent., of Khair ad-Dais, the most famous corsair in the Turkish empire. Others join the list, with uncertain personalities such as Torghoud raÏs Dragut, the terror of the Tyrrhenian, a pirate so fierce that the mere pronouncing of his name made one’s blood run cold, not only to Christian sailors. On the 11th March 1536 Juan Sarmiento inspects the coastal towers, the castles and other works of defence in the region and his report to the king Charles V, states that many fortifications are in a very bad shape, judging some of them such as those of Amantea, Cotrone, Oriolo and Tropea of no military importance and insufficient for defence and for Giuseppe Coniglio the royal report concludes with the hope of ulterior construction of fortified structures, suitable for defending the population living on the coast. In the periods of relative calm, from the growing peril that came from the sea, there are
SAN NICOLA ARCELLA CS
Tower vice regnale of Porto San Nicola (16th century)
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CROTONE
Castle of Carlo V (9th11th 14th 15th 16th century)
alternating periods of recrudescence of the phenomenon, which induce, in the first half of the 16th Century, the restoration of the ruined towers, as instruments of defence and to rebuild new ones wherever it seemed necessary, especially in those places more vulnerable and exposed, thanks to experience of previous attacks. From 1537 onwards, Charles V, (15001558) the Ruler of the world, convinced that God had invested him with great powers, so as to defend Christianity from the assaults of the Ottoman empire, orders the construction of a flexible system of coastal towers, able to withstand the feared Turkish invasion. The royal order is to realise a formidable defensive range and the viceroy, Pedro di Toledo (1484-1553), starts it off all over the vice realm. In 1559 there is a greater impetus in the reconstruction of the works of defence and the first laws are emanated
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to repair the damages present in the fortresses. The defence of the forts is not the passive type anymore and a radical renovation of the structures becomes necessary, apt for the introduction of the new firearms such as bombards and trebuchets. Long and thorough studies conclude that the Realm is defendable from external attacks only after the renovation of the fortresses and the building of «large and low towers; massive curtain walls with scarps, and reinforced by ramparts. Contours with juts and receding, angles, curves, semi-curves in a way such that the defending artillery could cover every external point». The diameter of the cylindrical towers that meanwhile have been built with lower but thicker walls, increases; the scarps rise right up to two thirds of the constructions which are surrounded by ditches to keep the enemy away. The rivellini (protective coverings above the walls and entries) are low and angulated to protect the walls, forcing further outward the encounters. In Aiello, Belvedere, Caulònia, Castrovillari, Corigliano, Gioio-
sa Jonica, Isola di Capo Rizzuto, Laino, Morano, Paola, Pizzo and Santa Severina silent castles are built or renovated in a prevailing GothicDurazzesco style, sometimes livened by Romanesque layers. They are almost all built on overhanging cliffs and rocks and in this way are also built the monumental angular towers of the castle in Reggio. Many of the watch-towers, in which the attached, had to alert the population on the coasts of the arrival of the Moslem ships, are completed by the Spanish Viceroy of Naples Parafan de Ribera. According to Flavio Russo, in his book The coastal defence in the Realm of Naples from the 16th to the 19th Century, the planners, keeping faith to the requirements of solidity, flexibility of use and economy, and rebutting the round towers because they were inadequate in accommodating cannons, suggest a square structure of a pyramidal and cone-section form, comparable to the Renaissance type of bastions and more resistant to the artillery’s blows. In the undergrounds of the structures there is room for a
Towers, keepers of the towers and peasants The Calabrese have little faith in providence and in the foresight of the current rulers, and in spite of the victory at Lepanto and the governing dispositions that regulated the building and use of strongholds; in Calabria towers and small castles still continue to be built. On the bruzie coasts, after the last spring showers, it is necessary to pay great attention to the guard service; in the garrisons of the towers the torrieri (tower keepers) have the task of alerting the population and the nearby towers in case of incursions. The system of signals, between the towers and the nearby lands in case of peril on the approaching of galleys, brigs or galliots, is regulated in such a way that, with the alarm sent out, from tower to tower to alert all the coast, the tolling of the bells and smoke signals during the day, and fires lit on the tower tops during the night, it was made clear the exact number of enemy ships that had appeared on the horizon. The cavallari, well armed soldiers who in groups of two explored the coasts by day and night, in the trip from one tower to the next, took part in the defence system; «if the cavallari sighted corsair ships near the shores, they had to alert the tower keepers by shooting with their harquebus, and dart to alert the nearby terrazzani (villagers)». The torrieri (tower keepers) and cavallari (horse keepers), were controlled by strict regulations, and protected by special beneficial conditions: «that those persons who are destined to be on guard cannot be incarcerated for debts in that period in which they are working, i.e. from 23.00 h of that day until the next morning, half hour after the public gates have been opened». The militia who break the rules will be fined fifty ducats: «captain at arms, mayors, designated persons, house owners, and any other minister must not, nor dare to, use the cavallari, guards tower keepers for any kind of service directed to their exclusive benefit, inside or outside the land, not for one day, but not even for one hour, in which case the cavallari, guards and tower keepers will loose one month’s pay every time and the persons
MONTEGIORDANO CS
Castle of Solano or Casaforte
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Stone gardens In the last decades of the 18th Century, according to the notes of Mirella Mafrici, an historian of the castle Art, the decreasing threat of invasions, weakens the Bourbon’s political will to provide to the defence of Calabria and the realm. To emphasise the degradation during the biennium 1806-1807, the Napoleonic and English artillery on the Tyrrhenian coast, dismantle many strongholds such as the ones in Amantea, Fiumefreddo, Cirella and the fort San Michele at Santa Maria del Cedro. During the Jacobin period, the NormanSwabian castle of Cosenza returns to its original function when Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte enters the city in triumph. The new king of Naples assigns to the magnificent Bruzio manor a large garrison commanded by general Massena. The realm is divided by the French Jacobin into provinces, districts and communities headed by mayors. In 1810 the next king of Naples Joachim Murat, on occasion of the garrison’s settling into the castle of Cosenza, a garrison made up hundreds of soldiers, climbs with all his military court, the splendid eighteenth century monumental staircase. With the return of the Bourbons, the towers of Calabria are almost all crumbling, and with the rescript of the 21th February 1827, their use is ordered further more, and some are handed over with the surrounding grounds to the managements of war, telegraphs and other state companies. The French conquest of Algeria and the beginning of the European predominance in the Mediterranean, ends the long period of terror, rape, pillage and kidnappings caused by the Berber raids. Once that the function of defence of the towers has lapsed and once they are disarmed with the suppression of the garrisons, all the system of coastal safeguarding surrenders to neglect. Many towers are abandoned, others are granted to private citizens, with the consequential transformations and the variations for civil use; others still are used by the State for the suppression of contraband. The degradation and the abandon of the towers and castles in Calabria is completed by the earthquakes that took place between 1836 and 1870 and also thanks to the negligence of the feudal and mid-
SANTA MARIA DEL CEDRO CS
Feudal castle of Abatemarco (14th 17th century)
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dleclass families that own them, and thanks to the downfall of feudalism and to the Unity of Italy. Many fortified structures on the coasts, and castellated residences of the Calabrese small towns, are abandoned and neglected and so become grand «stone gardens». In the 19th Century the social priest of Acri, Vincenzo Padula, in his book Calabria before and after the Unity, affirms sadly that «every town has ruins of some castle». Jean Marie Roland de la Platière at grips with adventurers and fortifications between Capri and the Strait of Messina, observes that it isn’t sufficient to place a gun-carriage on these bastions or a platoon of brave soldiers «pour redonner de l’àme à un people abattu» (to give back spirit to a knocked down population). With the Era of the Berber piracy from North Africa now at an end while the ships of Ferdinand II «of the Royal Neapolitan flag protected» are engaged in battles against the slave-trade in Calabria, the time has finally come to regain the land for cultivation and for the reclamation of marshlands from the devastating action of rivers.
REGGIO CALABRIA
Aragonese castle (11th 14th 15th 16th century)
ROCCELLA JONICA RC
The tower of Pizzofalcone (13th century) and the angioino castle (15th 17th 18th century)
SATRIANO CZ
Tower Ravaschiera or Uncinale II (15th 18th century)
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