Laureana di Borrello - Laureana di Borrello

Laureana di Borrello is a city of Calabria.

To know

Background

The origins of the city should date back to around the 9th and 10th centuries, when the populations of the coastal areas, which had become insecure due to the Saracen invasions, moved inland in search of safer and healthier lands. With feudalism it became part of the county of Borrello; having become a hamlet of Borrello, Laureana followed the fate of the county, both passing from hand to hand of various sovereigns and rulers over the following centuries.

Borrello was destroyed by the earthquake of March 27, 1638 ("Palm Sunday disaster") and by that of November 6, 1659. The formation of new marshes led to the abandonment of the ancient settlement in favor of the neighboring villages and Laureana became the center more populous. Laureana was hit by the earthquake of February 5, 1783, with tremors that lasted for three years; Borrello ceased to exist definitively.

In Laureana, as in the other municipalities affected by the earthquake, the inhabitants felt a sense of transience in life and the impression of being faced with an apocalypse, witnessed by the multiplication of the number of wills, which doubled (and in some cases tripled) compared to years preceding the catastrophe; in Stelletanone, in the gardens of Domenico Riniti and Antonio Argirò, notary studies were set up in huts sheltered from which testaments were dictated which provided, among other things, numerous and conspicuous bequests to the Church for the salvation of the soul.

The cult of the Madonna del Carmine grew in importance, believed to be the author of a miraculous intervention that would have saved the town from further destruction, progressively supplanting that of the ancient patron Saint Nicholas of Bari (already replaced in the patronage by San Gregorio Taumaturgo): the church of the saint, destroyed and rebuilt during the nineteenth century, was dedicated to the Madonna del Carmine.

How to orient yourself

How to get

By plane

The nearest airports are those of Reggio Calabria is Lamezia Terme, from there you will have to continue with another means.

By car

The nearest motorway exit is located at Rosarno; from there you will have to continue on the urban routes.

On the train

The city has no railway station; the closest one is in the neighboring municipality of Rosarno

How to get around

What see

• Mother church. The parish church, built on the same site as a previous building dating back to the sixteenth century, is dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli and San Gregorio Taumaturgo. Rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783, it was rendered unusable by another earthquake in 1928 and totally rebuilt between 1930 and 1938. 
• Church of San Francesco d'Assisi. Commonly known as the church of Sant'Antonio, it is located in via Belvedere. 
• Church of San Francesco di Paola. Formerly called the church of Calvary or of the Passion, it was originally built in 1580. Destroyed by the earthquake of 1783, it was rebuilt in the following years and slightly enlarged in 1885 and its interior was decorated with majolica. The adjoining convent of the Paolotti it was expropriated from the state property and demolished to make room for the road leading to Bellantone. In the church there is a wooden statue of San Francesco di Paola coming from the homonymous church of the destroyed Borrello. On the vault is represented the saint who miraculously crosses the Strait of Messina walking on the water. Outside, on the sides of the bell tower, two statues depict Saints Peter and Paul. 
• Church of San Pietro. 
• Church of the Carmine. At the beginning of Corso Umberto I at the corner with via Chindamo. 
• Church of Santa Maria della Sanità. Also known as "chiesòla" or "church of the Madonnicchia", it is located on the site where the original nucleus of Laureana is supposed to have formed around the year 1000, in the current Via Melchi in the so-called "massari" area. The unusual northern exposure of the facade suggests that the building was erected using the base of a pre-existing civil construction. The church, built by the Laquaniti-Argirò family, presumably around the seventeenth century, was rendered unusable by the earthquake of 1783 and subsequently restored. In it, a nineteenth-century wax statue depicting the Child Mary was venerated. It also preserves a 14th century bas-relief marble slab, coming from Miletus, some eighteenth-century paintings, a seventeenth-century marble washstand and an eighteenth-century straight organ with bellows. The Argirò coat of arms is present on the ancient stone portal of the church. 

Events and parties

There are numerous traditions of Laureana di Borrello, especially linked to religious celebrations. The most important of them is the feast of San Rocco, in the hamlet of Stelletanone. Among the civil celebrations in honor of the saint there are concerts, fireworks and the traditional dance of the Giants. In addition to the aforementioned event, the complete list of Catholic holidays that are held during the year, in the municipal area, is as follows:

• Anniversary of the miracle of the Most Holy Mary of Carmel. February 5th. The Laureanese people gather in prayer every 5th February, the anniversary of the disastrous earthquake of 1783, around the statue of the Madonna del Carmine, which miraculously spared the lives of the inhabitants. In procession we walk through the streets of the ancient village. 
• Feast of Maria Santissima Annunziata (Fraction of Bellantone). March 25. 
• Affruntata. Easter Sunday. 
• Feast of San Pasquale Baylon (Fraction of Bellantone). may 22. 
• Feast of the Most Holy Mary of Carmel. July 16. 
• Feast of Sant'Anna (Fraction of Sant'Anna). July 26. 
• Feast of San Rocco (Fraction of Stelletanone). August 16. 
• Feast of San Gregorio thaumaturge (Patron of Laureana). November 17. 

What to do

Shopping

How to have fun

Where to eat

Average prices

• Enotrio, Viale Regina Margherita, 44 / A, ☎ 39 349 4524316, @[email protected]. Closed on Wednesday. Restaurant-cafeteria specializing in fresh fish and Argentine meat, also offers the services of cocktail bar, event organization, catering and take-away meals. 

Where stay

Safety

How to keep in touch

Around

The best known tourist destinations in the vicinity are Reggio Calabria, Scylla is Tropea.

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Laureana di Borrello
• Commons contains images or other files on Laureana di Borrello

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