Gerace (; , also known as ) is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in the

Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria () is an area of local government at the level of metropolitan city in the Calabria region of Italy. It comprises the territory of the city of Reggio Calabria and 97 other ''comuni'' (: ''comune'') in the hin ...

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Gerace is located some inland from

Locri Locri is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. Its name derives from that of the ancient Greek region of Locris. Today it is an important administrative and cultural center on the Ion ...

, yet the latter town and the sea can be seen from Gerace's perch atop a vertical rock. The town stands on a hill formed of conglomerates of sea fossils from 60 million years ago. It is one of

I Borghi più belli d'Italia () is a non-profit private association of small Italian towns of strong historical and artistic interest, that was founded in March 2001 on the initiative of the Tourism Council of the National Association of Italian Municipalities, with the a ...

("The most beautiful villages of Italy").

History

The name of the city derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''hierax'' (ἱέραξ) ("

sparrowhawk Sparrowhawk (sometimes sparrow hawk) may refer to several species of small hawk in the subfamily Accipitrinae The Accipitrinae are the Family (biology), subfamily of the Accipitridae often known as the "true" hawks. The subfamily contains 73 s ...

"). According to a legend, the inhabitants of the coast, fleeing from a

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

attack in 915 CE, were led by a sparrowhawk to the mountains commanding the area of Locri, and here they founded the city. Archeological findings showed that the area was in fact inhabited since the

Neolithic Age The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...

; also traces of Sicel presence have been found. Later, even during the highest splendour of Locri, the hill was inhabited and was later the site of a Roman military garrison. After the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

reconquest of Italy in the 6th century, the town became an administrative, military and religious capital under the name of Santa Ciriaca. In 986 the Saracens briefly conquered the city, but it returned to

control until the Norman conquest in 1059. Gerace was seat of a principality under the Normans, whose symbol was the Castle of the Hautville or

Altavilla Altavilla is a village and former municipality in the district of See District, Fribourg, See in the canton of Fribourg, Switzerland. History It was first recorded in 1340 as ''Alta villa''. It has also had the German name ''Altenfüllen'' and ...

. It subsequently followed the history of the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until ...

. During the

Sicilian Vespers The Sicilian Vespers (; ) was a successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out at Easter 1282 against the rule of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou. Since taking control of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1266, the Capetian House ...

(late 13th century), Gerace was occupied by the Aragonese Admiral

Roger of Lauria Roger of Lauria (''c''. 1245 – 17 January 1305), was a Calabrian knight who served the Crown of Aragon as admiral of the Aragonese navy during the War of the Sicilian Vespers. He was probably the most successful and talented naval tacticia ...

who turned it into his own feudal estate; later it became a "Royal City". In 1348 it became a county, a possession of the Caracciolos, Gonzalo de Córdoba and, as a principality, of the Grimaldi (end of the 16th century). With the abolition of feudalism in 1806, Gerace became district capital. In 1847, the population of the district of Gerace rebelled, but the insurrection was eventually repressed by royal troops, and the leaders (including Rocco Verduci) were sentenced and executed in Gerace. A new modern town, Gerace Marina, was built on the coast in the 19th century to house new public buildings. The name was changed to Locri in 1934.

Main sights

The main attractions of Gerace are the remains of the old Norman Castle (probably begun in the 10th century by the Byzantines) at the top of Gerace, and the perfectly preserved medieval town. It was once home to 128 churches; the most noteworthy amongst the remaining ones include: *Church of St. Francis (13th century), containing a precious Baroque altar. *The Norman Cathedral, the largest religious building in Calabria, including the prison of the Five Martyrs of Gerace (1045). It has a nave and two aisles, each divided by 13 columns coming from the ancient temples of

. The

crypt A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...

is accessible also. It has also a museum, founded in 1996. *The tiny Greek-Orthodox church of ''San Giovannello'' ("Little St. John"), built in the 10th century. *''Santa Maria del Mastro'' (1083), of Greek rite until 1480. File:Gerace Cattedrale.jpg, Cathedral of Gerace File:Gerace_interno_cattedrale_3.jpg, Interior of the Cathedral File:Gerace San Giovannello.jpg, Church of San Giovannello File:Gerace_San Francesco Portal.jpg, Portal of the church of St. Francis File:Gerace Castle.jpg, left, The ruins of the castle

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Calabria Castles in Italy 915 establishments 10th-century establishments in Italy Borghi più belli d'Italia