Locri Epizephiri

The millenarian history of Locri Epizephyrii (in Greek, Λοκροί Επιζεφύριοι) begins between the VIII and the VII century B.C. with the arrival, on the shores of southern Calabria, of a group of settlers from Locris, a poor region of the ancient Greece. From that moment onward, the history of the city develops in the course of the ages and it is studded by many meaningful events: from the magnificence of the archaic age and the alliance with Syracuse to the difficult impact with the Roman world; from the new positive dimension of Municipium to the unavoidable decline that will carry the city to drag itself on until the VII and the VIII century AD, when some environmental problems (lack of resources and spreading of malaria) added to the increasingly violence of Arab raids, pushed the last inhabitants of the zone to take shelter on the near mountains and, from then on, to contribute to the development of a new city: Gerace.

​The polis of Locri Epizephyrii was ruled following a typical Greek model. A strict conservative aristocracy exercised the power through the "one-thousand assembly", which was probably composed by all the citizens in charge of full political rights; also the population was divided in three tribes and thirty-six phratries. Between the VII and the VI century BC the development of the polis was well underway; the city flourished with a strict and organized urban plan, and its sanctuaries with their cults were already well recognized almost everywhere in the Greek world. The internal situation was, as it has been already pointed out, ideal to start planning an expansion of the control over the territory around the city, even with the creation of some sub-colonies. That was necessary because, more than the need of control over a larger portion of territory, there was the risk that the great demographic increase of that age could harm the social equilibrium reached by the polis. Therefore, probably during the end of the VII century BC, Medma (the modern Rosarno) and Hipponion (the modern Vibo Valentia) were founded on the Tyrrhenian coast. By this time, with the foundation of these two sub-colonies, Locri Epizephyrii took the control of a large part of territory, spreading from the Ionian to the Tyrrhenian coasts and embracing the mountains between the two seas; this expansion created the conditions for the historical clashes against Kroton and Rhegion, cities which began to see in Locri Epizephyrii a dangerous problem for their future expansion.



Attractions
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• Village of Gerace

One of the most interesting historical centers of Calabria, because of the many works and churches dating back to the Byzantine period such as the Cathedral.

• Antonimina Terme

Active SPA and wellness center. The healing potential of the thermal waters, known as "Ancient Waters," were known since ancient times, as they were used by the ancient city of Locri Epizephiri. The ancient Locrians sent the waters in their city through an aqueduct built along the bank of the stream of Gerace.

• Ardore and Siderno Vecchia

Villages with ancient buildings.

• Roman Villa in Casignana

It is the second archaeological site of the Roman era of Southern Italy, after Piazza Armerina, for the wonderful beauty of its mosaics and their conservation state.

• Villa of Naniglio in Gioiosa Jonica

It was built towards the end of the first century B.C. and reached its maximum splendour around the III century A.D. The element of great interest, for the exceptional state of conservation, is the great underground cistern with three naves, which was accessed in ancient from the upper level by means of a spiral staircase.

• Castle of Carafa

Roccella Ionica is dominated by this eighteenth-century castle.

• Caulonia

Numerous six-eighteenth-century churches.

• The Cattolica of Stilo

An example of Byzantine church architecture that’s one of the most important and best preserved in Italy, certainly unique in all of Calabria. The “Cattolica”, in fact, is a case study for anyone wanting to understand the development of Byzantine art in the South. The building, dating back to the tenth century AD, is a small structure (7.8m x 7.30m x 7m), a Greek cross inscribed in a square in a typical model “Pentakoubouklon” (πεντακούβουκλον) developed in Constantinople, later spreading to the rest of the Empire around the tenth century. Austere both inside and outside, made of hollow clay bricks and regular bricks joined by mortar, the few decorative elements found on its facade were mostly terracotta and the domes covered with square tiles and two brick frames arranged in a saw-tooth pattern along the line of the windows.

• Kaulon - Monasterace

The archaeological site, identified during the first decades of the twentieth century, has given back important data on the extension of the city walls and on the location of the sacred areas, the necropolis and some districts destined for private construction. Rich and well-preserved mosaics are present, very famous is the dragon of Kaulon.

• Bivongi

The remains of the Byzantine monastery of S. Giovanni Therestis and the waterfalls of Marmarico.