I paesi del Parco – SARACENA

Territory

Saracena is situated on a rocky hill that stretches along the eastern slope of the Garga River valley, at the foot of the Orsomarso Mountains, which form the southern extension of the Pollino National Park. Just a few kilometers from the town center, almost directly opposite, is the Grotta di San Michele Arcangelo, commonly known as the Grotta di Sant’Angelo, a large karstic cavity opening at around 750 meters above sea level in the limestone wall to the west of the Garga River. It was inhabited from the Early Neolithic until the Middle Bronze Age. Among the other natural resources in the area are Mount Caramolo, which at 1,827 meters is the highest point in the municipality, the Novacco Plateau, the Masistro Plateau, Timpone Scifariello, and the Tavolara Pond. The territorial surface area is 111.51 km², with a population density of 37 inhabitants per square kilometer. The municipal territory spans from 92 meters to 1,827 meters above sea level, with an elevation range of 1,735 meters, contributing to the variety of its botanical and faunal heritage. As for the climate of Saracena, the historian Vincenzo Forestieri, in the second half of the 19th century, described it as follows: “The climate is temperate and the air is healthy. While winters on the mountains are harsh, the summer heat is mitigated by the cool breezes from the same mountains.”

 

History

It is believed that Saracena descends from the ancient Sestio, founded by the Enotri, as reported by Strabo, Stephen of Byzantium, and Father Giovanni Fiore from Cropani. In his Della Calabria illustrata, Father Fiore speaks of Saracena: “An ancient land, the same that once flourished under the name of Sestio, founded by the Enotri... It was the sixth land built by Enotrio Arcade in Calabria, five hundred sixty years before the Trojan War, and hence was named Sestio.” Both Strabo and Stephen of Byzantium are cited by Abbot Giovan Battista Pacichelli in his Il Regno di Napoli in prospettiva (1703), where, referring to Saracena, he states: “It cannot be doubted that this land is the ancient city of Sestio, mentioned by Strabo and Stephen of Byzantium among the many others of the Enotri...” Pacichelli, in his posthumous work, also mentions fiscal censuses, and regarding Saracena, he adds: “This land is recorded with three hundred seventy-three hearths, filled with nobles and wealthy inhabitants, adorned with many notable buildings of palaces and churches, among which there are three parochial ones.” According to Father Fiore, Sestio was founded in the year of Creation 2256 (1744 BC), and around the 9th century AD, it was conquered by the

Saracens, who established a colony there. Later, according to Fiore, the imperial army of Constantinople attacked and destroyed the city, scattering the few survivors who were led by a naked, disheveled woman wrapped in a sheet.

The memory of this legend is depicted in an ancient fresco visible on the front of the Chapel of St. Anthony and on a 16th-century polyptych preserved in the sacristy of the Church of St. Mary del Gamio, as well as in the municipal seal and the gonfalon of Saracena, where a woman is portrayed fleeing, wrapped in a sheet, surrounded by the inscription: "Universitas terrae Saracinae." Once the city was rebuilt at a more defensible site (the present location), the Byzantine period began. Its first cultural and social influences can be traced back to the 8th century through the influence of Greek monasticism, which was part of the broader monastic movement in the Mercurion region. In the 10th century, the Byzantine administration created the Catepanate of Italy, which included all of Calabria.

 

Developments and Dominations

The new town, developed around the baronial castle, enclosed by walls (which are now destroyed or incorporated into the buildings' walls) and fortified with four gates (Porta del Vaglio, Porta S. Pietro, Porta Nuova, and Porta dello Scarano), became a feudal domain with the arrival of the Normans in the second half of the 11th century. During this period, at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, it is likely that the new name of the town began to be used. Its urban and demographic development was such that in 1275, it was the fourth-largest town in the Cassano diocese, with 3,585 inhabitants. In the 14th century, the location was referred to as Castrum Sarracene, and by the early 1500s, it was known as alla Saracena. The Feudo of Saracena initially belonged to the Dukes of St. Marco and other feudal lords, including Guglielmo Pallotta and Filippo Sangineto of Altomonte. From the second half of the 14th century, it passed to the Sanseverino family, first as counts and dukes, and later as Princes of Bisignano, who held it for over two centuries. Toward the end of the 17th century, it was purchased at a public auction for 45,000 ducats by the Gaetani d'Aragona, Dukes of Laurenzana, who, in 1613, transferred it to the Pescara family of Diano. With royal consent on March 26, 1718, for 102,000 ducats, the Feudo of Saracena was sold to Francesco Maria Spinelli, 8th Prince of Scalea. The Spinelli family's dominion over the city lasted until 1806, when, by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, the feudal system was abolished.

During the Risorgimento, despite being a small community, Saracena was very active on the patriotic and anti-Bourbon front. A section of the "Giovine Italia" was active in the town, known as the "Chiesa del Garga," with notable figures such as Stanislao Lamenza, Gaetano De Paola, Leone Forestieri, Antonio Prioli, Francesco Pompilio, and Leone Ricca. Antonio Prioli, sentenced to seven years in prison for political reasons, died in prison on April 29, 1855. His figure was remembered by Luigi Settembrini in the posthumous work Ricordanze della mia vita. Stanislao Lamenza, after several years in prison for political reasons, participated in the Expedition of the Thousand and lost his life in Palermo, fighting as a major against the soldiers of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Leone Ricca, after serving a prison sentence for political crimes, worked on establishing the National Guard. In 1863, he was awarded the Silver Medal for Military Valor as a Captain in the Volunteers of Southern Italy for "valor demonstrated on October 1, 1860, near Capua." Leone Ricca also left an interesting correspondence with Giuseppe Garibaldi. Leone Ricca’s son, Giovan Battista, was also awarded a medal for his role in the 1866 war against the Austrians. In the early 2000s, Saracena was awarded the title of "Garibaldian City."

Monuments and Places of Interest

Andrea Alfano Municipal Art Gallery
The Saracena Art Gallery, located in the historic Mastromarchi Palace, is dedicated to the painter and poet Andrea Alfano (1879-1967). It contains a collection of over 230 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Italian and foreign artists, primarily from the 20th century. The establishment of the gallery, inaugurated on May 1, 1985, along with the Municipal Library, was made possible by the donation from the surviving founding members of the "Sestium" Artistic-Cultural Association, active in Saracena from 1952 until the mid-1970s. The gallery's collection includes works by Renato Guttuso, Domenico Purificato, Giovanni Omiccioli, Sante Monachesi, Guglielmo Sansoni, Franco Iurlo, Ugo Attardi, Eliano Fantuzzi, Giovanni Consolazione, Antonio Vangelli, Giulio Turcato, Ernesto Treccani, Ortensio Gionfra, Enotrio Pugliese, Carlo Acciari, Pericle Fazzini, Andrea Alfano, Luigi Montanarini, Ilia Peikov, Giuseppe Ragogna, Mimmo Sancineto, Leila Lazzaro, Lello M. Barresi, Valery Escalar, Irene Paceviciute, Leonardo De Magistris, Helene Zelezny-Scholz, Emilio Greco, and others. Initially, the collection included 75 works. During the inauguration, the speaker, Professor Aldo Maria Morace, referred to the number of works and the prominence of the artists in the collection, calling the event a "miracle à l'italienne."

Sacred Art Museum
The Sacred Art Museum, inaugurated on April 30, 1993, is housed within the Church of Santa Maria del Gamio in the historic center. It contains paintings, silver and gilded copper furnishings, reliquary busts, liturgical vestments, and archival documents, spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. Notable works include an exhibition throne of Neapolitan origin for the Eucharistic exposition, two large monstrances crafted by silversmith Salvatore Vecchio in 1753, a 17th-century processional cross, and a painting of the Madonna della Purità created on a metal plate between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Church of San Leone

The church of S. Leone, whose exact construction date is not known (probably between the 10th and 11th centuries), was built on the ruins of a church with a Greek cross inscribed in a square, and therefore of Byzantine worship. Equally uncertain is the moment in which the Byzantine rite was replaced by the Latin rite.

The church, initially dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, was consecrated to Saint Leo, known as the Thaumaturge, in 1224 by Guglielmo, bishop of Bisignano. It is the largest of the churches in Saracena. Its typology can be ascribed to the mature Romanesque period and the first Calabrian Gothic. The bell tower with a hexagonal plan and Romanesque triple lancet windows remains from this period. It was retouched in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The exterior is characterized by the beautiful 16th-century portal located in the main façade, commissioned by the Sanseverino Princes. The side portal, carved in limestone by local stonecutters, dates back to the same century. The interior, remodeled, is in Baroque style and divided into three naves. On the vault of the central nave there are frescoes depicting four episodes from the Old Testament, such as 1) the Sacrifice of Abraham, 2) Judith and Holofernes, 3) the Good Shepherd and 4) the Coronation of the Virgin Mary. The interior houses various works of art of considerable interest and artistic value, including marble statues, wooden statues and sculptures, paintings, reliquary busts, silver chalices, monstrances, chasubles, copes. Along the left nave there are four chapels, dedicated, respectively, to: San Leone, the Virgin Most Holy of Sorrows, the Virgin Most Holy of the Rosary, the Madonna delle Grazie.

Church of Santa Maria del Gamio

The church of S. Maria del Gamio (from the Greek “of the wedding”, with a probable reference to those of Cana) is a building of Byzantine origin, and is among the oldest churches in the area of ​​the Pollino National Park. The exact year of its foundation is unknown, but it can be dated between the 10th and 11th centuries. From the analysis of some ancient parchment fragments it can be deduced that the Byzantine rite remained in use until 1568, the year of the consecration of the church to the Latin rite.[13] During the 17th and 18th centuries the church underwent some renovations, and in the second half of the 19th century, at the behest of its attorney D. Alessandro Mastromarchi, the building was extended in plan with the creation of a new facade in neo-Palladian style (1870-1874). The bell tower was also completely redone between 1882 and 1884.

The church is accessed by an iron gate, built and placed on site in the second half of the 19th century. Once past the gate, you enter an open space, restored in 1997. In front of the gate there are two doors, one of which is used as the entrance to the church. The oldest door was built by a certain Giovanni La Bollita from Altomonte at the beginning of the 17th century, with external stucco work by Pascale Morello in 1757-58, while the other door was placed there in 1872 following the extension work on the building.

The interior of the church, rich in works of art, has three naves. The central nave features a majestic ceiling with carved and gilded wooden coffers, the work of the craftsmen Jacono Lanfusa and Vincenzo de Untiis who created it between 1619 and 1628. Further decorative work on the ceiling was carried out in 1787-88, in addition to (in the same years) interventions aimed at protecting it from water and dust infiltration. The only chapel in the church is dedicated to St. Innocent the Martyr, protector of the parish. The statue of St. Innocent was purchased in Naples in 1831, and placed on a marble altar built in 1772 by the Neapolitan artist Marino Palmieri, on which the statue of the Madonna della Natività was previously placed, then transferred to the main altar.

In the sacristy there is a beautiful polyptych on wood from the mid-sixteenth century, among whose depictions stand out San Biagio and San Francesco di Paola. At the base of the structure, under two columns, are the coats of arms of the Sanseverino family, lords of Saracena, and of the city. Also of considerable interest is the underlying bench, from a local artisan workshop, dating back to the mid-17th century. Adjacent to the sacristy is the Museum of Sacred Art.

Church of Santa Maria delle Armi
In the oldest district of Saracena stands the church of S. Maria delle Armi, once a parish and since 1812 a dependency of Gamio, whose first news is found in a document from the second half of the 11th century in which the churches dependent on the Abbey of Banzi are mentioned, and, among these, there is S. Maria in Armis.

Madonna allattante (15th-16th century)

On the entrance door of the church, located on the long side of the same, there is a small alabaster statue - partially deteriorated - depicting the Virgin and Child. The dating of this sculpture is uncertain.

The interior of the church has three naves. Among the works of art present, noteworthy are, among others: a canvas on the high altar depicting the Madonna and Child with Saints, by an unknown artist (17th century); the altar balustrade, with its anthropomorphic figures and decorative medallions (18th century); the wooden pulpit with Renaissance decorations (16th century); the confessional, made by the prestigious cabinet-making workshop of the Fusco family of Morano Calabro (18th century). In the central nave you can also admire a fresco of the Madonna and Child (Madonna allattante) by an unknown artist, dating back to the 15th-16th century or perhaps earlier, one of the most beautiful works of art preserved in Saracena.

In the second half of the 19th century the church underwent a restoration and expansion project.

Capuchin Convent

Chapels

In the territory of Saracena, in addition to the three churches, there are numerous chapels, some of which are of Byzantine origin. The main ones are: S. Maria dell’Alto Cielo or Ara Coeli (12th century, located in the S. Pietro district), S. Antonio di Padova (16th century), S. Maria di Costantinopoli (built around 1650, located in Via della Fiumara), S. Anna (17th century), S. Maria del Garga or Madonna della Fiumara (1874). Not far from this last chapel are the ruins of the Church of S. Maria de Garga or Ad Flumen, dating back to the second half of the 11th century. At the beginning of the 17th century the church was enlarged and added to the Colloreto Monastery, only to be abandoned two centuries later following the suppression of the religious orders.