COSENZA
The City is in the form of
an old nucleus, on the Pancrazio Hills (383m), on whose summit
you can find a Castle in Arabic-Norman Style of noteworthy
architectural quality. It was restored by Federico II and
later improved, giving it modern quarters constructed to the
north of Busento, on a normal map.
Old Consentia or Cosentia, probably founded
by the Pelasgi or by the Lucani, an important centre of Bruzio,
was subdued by the Romans (204BC) and became a colony under
Augusto Alarico, who died in the vicinity of the City (410),
and was buried by the Goths; according to the legend, on the
bed of the river Busento, after having temporarily deviated
its course. Castaldato Longobard was then, in the 9th and
11th Centuries, Saracen and Norman: with the Angioini, it
became an important administrative centre of the Sila. In
the 15th Century, it was part of the revolts of the Silani
citizens (1458-1459) and by the Baroni (1458-1486) against
the Aragonese, and supported the heavy repressions. It was
destroyed numerous times by earthquakes (1638, 1783, 1854
and 1870). Centre of insurrectional revolts against the Bourbons,
during the Renaissance period (1829, 1837, 1844, 1847, and
1848), after the last of these, which broke out in 1860, it
then became part of the Reign of Italy. Following the unfortunate
expedition of 1844, the Bandiera Brothers were shot in the
Walloon of Rovito, in the vicinity of the City.
In the old part of the City of Cosenza, you
can find the main monuments of considerable importance: the
Cathedral (constructed in Gothic-Cistercian form, between
1185 and 1222, then transformed during the ‘700’s
and finally, fully restored in the 19th Century) - in its
interior you can find the beautiful sepulchre of Regina Isabella
d’Aragona (1271), the churches of San Francesco d’Assisi
(dating by to the 13th-15th Centuries), San Francesco di Paoloa
(18th Century), of the Cappuccinelle (15th-16th Centuries)
and of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli (18th Century), the Porta
Martirano and some beautiful 15th Century Buildings.
In the New City, you can find the church of San Domenico (15th
Century, redone in the 18th Century). The Civic Archeological
Museum and the Cosentina Academy, face onto Piazza 15th Marzo.
Cosenza was native land of the philosopher and naturalist
Bernardino Telesio and the poet Galeazzo di Tarsia.
The Cosenza province includes a large part
of the Region of the Sila, under valuation as a tourist, agricultural
and industrial area, and the Catena Costiera (Coastal Area),
of deep descent towards the Tirrenio. There is very little
flatland (Vallo del Crati, in the interior and Piana di Sibari,
along the Ionic coast). The main rivers are the Crati and
the Neto, tributaries of the Ionio; there are numerous, so
called, Fiumare (broad streams), due to an intensely torrential
regime.
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