Rosarno - Rosarno

Rosarno is a city of Calabria.

To know

Geographical notes

Rosarno is located on a hill that overlooks the port of Gioia Tauro and the surrounding plain like a natural balcony.

It includes a vast and extremely fertile territory whose limits are the Mésima river to the north, the Metramo river to the east and the first buttresses of the Calabrian Serre, the Municipality of Gioia Tauro to the south, San Ferdinando to the west (a fraction of Rosarno until 1977). The town is perched on a hill, from which it dominates the plain below, full of orange and olive groves, and the port of Gioia Tauro, just 6 km away as the crow flies.

In 2004 Rosarno obtained the title of city, conferred on it by the President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior; however, the services are scarce (the hospital built in the seventies has never been inaugurated) and there are many signs of neglect and building waste, such as the Greek theater in reinforced concrete which was never actually used.

Its territory (of which 120 hectares are part of the Regulatory Plan prepared by ASI - Industrial Development Area - for industrial settlements) is the land gateway (railway and motorway) to the port of Gioia Tauro and to the areas intended for production settlements. .

Background

The origins of Rosarno are to be found in the ancient Greek colony of Medma, founded by the Locrians at the end of the sixth century BC. The city disappeared in the 2nd century AD. and its place was taken by Nicotera, city of probable Medmea foundation.

In medieval times the toponym is encountered for the first time in 1037 in a Neapolitan document; even earlier, the Basilian monks had erected on the hill called Badia a monastery dedicated to Santa Maria del Rovito, of which remains, preserved in the Basilian Monastery of Grottaferrata, a silver cross of Byzantine origin with an inscription that reveals its provenance.

From the 14th century the fiefdom of Rosarno was the subject of disputes between noble feudal lords and the crown, until it came into the possession of Ludovico il Moro and then of Isabella of Aragon. At the beginning of the 16th century, Ettore Pignatelli received the fiefdom from King Ferdinand II of Aragon, maintained by his family until 1806. Charles III of Spain spent a holiday there in 1735 hunting in the woods of the area known for its abundant game and medical plants.

On February 5, 1783 the city was razed to the ground by a devastating earthquake that struck the whole of Calabria, causing over 60,000 victims; Rosarno recorded the disappearance of 203 inhabitants, but the most serious consequence was of a geological order, with the lowering of the river valley Mesima. The water upheaval that followed led to the onset of malaria and urban depopulation, a condition mitigated by the interventions of the Marquis Vito Nunziante, general of King Ferdinand of Bourbon, who began a reclamation action that over time transformed a marshy area into fertile territory .

At the turn of the century, Rosarno was the headquarters of Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, who freed the city from the occupying French army and who from there made contact with King Ferdinand I, who had in the meantime been repaired in Palermo. His successor Ferdinand II visited the city in 1833, immediately after his coronation, returning twenty years later and receiving a triumphal welcome on the occasion. Even Giuseppe Garibaldi, during his expedition of the Thousand, stopped in 1860 in Rosarno. The inhabitants worked hard in favor of Garibaldi's army, and testimony of the events is provided by the travel diary of the French soldier-writer Maxime Du Camp, following the Garibaldi expedition.

Also thanks to the land reclamation operations that lasted for decades, Rosarno became a pole of economic and commercial attraction, attracting thousands of workers from the Ionian and Neapolitan areas, favored by the new railway line that connected Eboli to Reggio Calabria and which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was noted for an intense freight traffic. A boost towards the evolution of the agricultural sector was given by the occupation of the lands of the Wood in 1945: hundreds of peasant families settled in the uncultivated lands giving rise to the development of citrus and olive groves

The Rosarno clashes were violent racially motivated clashes that took place between 7 and 9 January 2010; started after the wounding of two African immigrants by strangers with a compressed air rifle, later turned into an urban revolt that saw police, citizens and immigrants opposing each other.

Some time after the clashes, the judiciary began to investigate the possibility that some Calabrian mafia gangs might have had an interest in starting the clashes or that they had supported them to obtain popular consent.

In 1992 is in the 2008 the municipal council of Rosarno was dissolved for mafia infiltration.

How to orient yourself

How to get

By plane

The nearest airports are those of Reggio Calabria is Lamezia Terme, further away that of Catania; however, it will be necessary to continue with other means.

By car

The city has a junction of the A2 Mediterranean motorway.

On the train

The city has an RFI station that allows direct connection with the main tourist destinations of the Calabrian Tyrrhenian coast and with the main Italian cities; it is the stop of the Frecciargento train between Reggio Calabria and Rome and of the Frecciarossa and Italo trains between Reggio Calabria and Turin.

By bus

There are several bus companies that make extra-urban connections that have a stop in the city.

How to get around

What see

• Church of the Rosary (Church of San Domenico). Annexed to the destroyed Convent of the Dominican Fathers Preachers, founded in 1526 with the name of “Santa Maria del Soccorso. The Convent hosted Fra Girolamo Musitano, one of the most learned theologians of the 17th century, author of the “Teologicarum Disputationum”. The only testimony of the ancient monastery, destroyed by the earthquake of 1783, is the current Church of the Rosary, the ancient chapel of the friars, with a single nave. The finely worked marble high altar is dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary, the statues of San Rocco and the Madonna del Rosario are kept in the side cabinets. The Church houses two other sacred effigies: of S. Rita and S. Michele. A precious marble medallion depicting Pius V is housed under the modern altar. The vault of the church was frescoed in 1926 by Zimatore Grillo. The sepulchral pits are still preserved under the floor. The Confraternity of the Rosary has been operating since the 18th century. 
• Sanctuary Maria SS. of Patmos (Mother Church, Church of San Giovanni Battista). With a decree of Msgr. Domenico Crusco, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Oppido-Palmi, the Parish Church of San Giovanni Battista was elevated to a Diocesan Sanctuary in honor of Maria SS. of Patmos. The year of construction is not known but it certainly existed in 1540: in that year, July 12, it is present in the Vatican Register. Destroyed by the earthquake of 1783, it was rebuilt. It was demolished in 1929 and rebuilt on the same site, but in a better position. In the current building, coming from the old one, there is a valuable oil painting depicting the Madonna with Jesus and St. John the child, which experts date back to the sixteenth century, by an unknown painter. The church, with three naves, has as many altars: on the main one stands the statue of the Madonna of Patmos, remaking of the wooden statue, destroyed by a fire, found on the Rosarno lido in 1400 coming from a monastery on the Greek island, after the Monks entrusted it to the waves to save it from the fury of the Muslim iconoclasts; the one on the left is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, while on the right is the altar of the Holy Family. Small altars on the side walls house the statues of St. John the Baptist, St. Teresa, the Virgin of Carmel, St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua. The famous relics of S. Costanza, Vergine and Martire, of San Bonifacio and Vittoria are still preserved today. A marble plaque from the 18th century. certifies the presence in Rosarno of the noble Grimaldi family of Monaco. 
• Church of the Purgatory. In 1698 it appears in the parish register also as "Church of the dead", or "of the Holy Trinity". The cult for the "holy souls in Purgatory" is ancient and is testified by an inscription on the large bell from 1649. A more recent painting placed above the altar attests the great devotion of the Rosarnese to the souls in purgatory. It was sent from Argentina in 1903 by a certain Juan Rodolico, an emigrant, and represents the sufferings of the dead destined for Purgatory, with his hands stretched upwards, where God, the Supreme Good, is waiting for them. The most precious jewel of this small church (already destroyed by the earthquake of 1783, and again damaged by that of 1894, it was rebuilt the following year) is a wooden crucifix of exquisite workmanship, by an unknown author, probably dating back to the 17th century. In the Church there are: the Varetta with Christ taken down from the Cross and the statue of Christ the Redeemer, protagonists of the Holy Week (characterized by the famous "Affruntata", the meeting in the main square of the city, Easter Sunday, with the participation of thousands of faithful, of the Madonna with the risen Son), and a statue of S. Antonio Abate. 
• Church of the Immaculate Conception. The ancient Church of the Immaculate Conception, built at the end of the 17th century, was located in the current Piazza Duomo. It was demolished in 1942 together with numerous adjacent houses to make way for the monumental School Building. In the early fifties, the current church bearing the ancient name was built by the family of the Paparatti Barons, in the Gallo district, near the Barbalace hill and a few meters from Via Roma. In it there is a beautiful statue of the Immaculate Virgin, wearing a precious blue silk dress embroidered in gold, belonging, it is said, to Princess Mastrilli. In the small lateral niches there are the statues of S. Lucia, S. Nicola, S. Alfonso, San Giuseppe. Of the two surviving bells, the oldest is the smallest, cast in 1701. 
• Church of the Addolorata. Founded as a subsidiary church of the Parish of St. John the Baptist, it was housed in a small shack on the outskirts of the recently formed Rione Case Nuove. It was enlarged in 1930 to meet the needs of a neighborhood that was expanding from year to year. The current building was built in 1939. Raised to a parish in 1953, it became a center of human and religious promotion in a district inhabited mainly by peasants and proletarians, thanks to the tireless work of Don Peppino Gagliardi. Since January 1984 it has been run by Don Carmelo Ascone, who is credited with having undertaken an accurate work of artistic embellishment over the years. Inside there are the statues of the Addolorata and the SS. Cosma and Damiano, object of cult particularly felt by the faithful. 
• Clock tower, Piazzetta San Giovanni Bosco. It was built in 1812 by the Municipal Administration, Mayor Fortunato Laghani. Placed in a happy position to act as a backdrop to the main street, now Corso Garibaldi, it represents the symbol of the city. 
• School Building "E. Marvasi", Old Town (main square). Named after the Rosarno poet Enzo Marvasi, the building was designed by the famous Italian architect and urban planner Marcello Piacentini in 1936, inaugurated on November 4, 1939, is a characteristic example of the architecture of the fascist era. The structure includes: ground floor, first floor and a floor located at the level of the roadway in via Leonardo Megna. The halls, stairs, corridors and classrooms are large and proportionate to the volume of the entire structure.  .
• Archaeological Museum of Medma. small square "Filippo di Medma". was inaugurated on 6 April 2014 in the presence of Salvatore Settis, a world-renowned archaeologist and scholar, who began his career right here, in his hometown. The first excavations in today's Rosarno date back to one hundred years ago, when the archaeologist Paolo Orsi brought to light the testimonies of this significant center of Magna Graecia. Several objects found during the campaigns of the early 1900s are now on display at important institutions, including the Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria and the British Museum in London. Some of them, including several ex-votos linked to the cult of Aphrodite and Athena, have finally returned to their place of origin 
• Museum of peasant civilization, popular traditions and emigration, Plan of the Vineyards (inside the Archaeological Park of Medma). 
• Ancient Medma Archaeological Park, viale della Pace - Piano delle Vigne. 

Events and parties

• January Fair, Valarioti square. second Wednesday of January. 
• Orange blossom festival. April. with the presentation of various products (from citrus to the finished product) 
• Feast of the patron saint St. John the Baptist. June 24. 
• Feast of SS Cosma and Damiano. July. 
• Feast of San Rocco. July. 
• Festival of the Housewife. August. 
• National Review-Festival of Amateur Theater. August. 
• Palio dei Rioni - Historical parade. August. 
• Magna Graecia Theater Festival. August. 
• National Award "Valarioti-Impastato". granted to the anti-mafia and social commitment of entities, personalities and institutions 
• Festival of Peoples. January 7. socio-cultural and singing event born with the aim of sensitizing local populations to the migrant phenomenon. 
• Summer Theater Review "Nuovamente Teatro Popularia". July. 

What to do

Shopping

• Market, Valarioti square. Saturday. 
• 38.48808915.9681461 Newfoundland, Via Nazionale, 324, ☎ 39 0966 716613. Mon-Sat 9: 00-12: 45, 16-20 Sun 16: 30-20. City branch of the well-known clothing chain. 

How to have fun

Where to eat

Where stay

Safety

• 38.48902915.9700351 Carabinieri Command Tenenza Rosarno, Via Aldo Moro, 32 (A few meters from the Evangelical church), ☎ 39 0966 773010. 

How to keep in touch

Post office

• 38.48712515.9768212 Post Office, Piazza Giuseppe Valarioti, SNC, ☎ 39 0966 719549, fax: 39 0966 773440. Mon-Fri 8: 20-19: 05, Sat 8: 20-12: 35. Office equipped with ATM and online seat reservation 
• 38.49174815.9716073 Post Office, Via Nazionale, 132, ☎ 39 0966 773186, fax: 39 0966 773186. Mon-Fri 8: 20-13: 45, Sat 8: 20-12: 45. Office with ATM 

Around

Summer destinations not to be overlooked are Tropea is Lace; easily accessible by train is also Scylla, while typically the closest beaches are a San Ferdinando it's at Gioia Tauro.

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Rosarno
• Commons contains images or other files on Rosarno

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