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Caulonia
by Antonio Nicaso
Set
upon a rocky mass “in the shape of a scalene triangle”, among
a pleasant expanse of orange and lemon blossoms, broom bushes
and jasmine, kissed by a clear Mediterranean sun, reflecting on
a cobalt blue sea, sits Caulonia, from the height of its three
hundred metres, fascinates its visitors with its customs and its
remote traditions, and steals their hearts with the discovery
of a “Calabria” suspended between fantasy and exultation, between
nature and history, where everything combines to give life to
surprising sensations. This noble citadel, whose origins are wrapped
in the veils of Magna-Grecian culture, owes its birth to the desire
for liberty which enabled a colony of strong, young Achaeans,
led by Trifone di Egina, to row the currents of the Ionian sea.
The place on which Caulonia gradually rose and expanded, was founded
around 722 B.C.
Built
under the rule of the Crotonians, to the left of the banks
of the Sagra, among happy woods and rolling hills, near Mount
Caulone, it soon became an autonomous and independent republic,
able to mint coins and dictate their movements. For Caulonia,
the doors of the temple of “Giano” opened after three centuries
of peace, precisely in 389 B.C., the year during which it was
laid under siege, conquered and destroyed by the bloodthirstiness
of the Aratusian tyrant Dionisio il Vecchio (the old), with
the tacit connivance of the republic of Locri. After the death
of Dionisio il Vecchio in 367 B.C., following his defeat on
behalf of the Carthaginians of Erice, his son, Dionisio il Giovane
(the young), came to the throne of Siracusa and, as his first
command, commissioned the Locresi to reconstruct and re-populate
Caulonia.
Subsequently passed into the hands of the Bruzi, dominated
by the unstoppable force of the Roman eagles, it was handed
over to Pirro, king of Epiro. It was then completely destroyed
for having sided with the legendary Hannibal, during the Punic
wars, by the army of the “Temporeggiatore”, Fabio Massimo, in
200 B.C., following an irrevocable verdict emitted by the Senatus
Popolusque Romanus.
The “Cunctator” managed to bury the glorious republic
under the rubble but he did not manage to suppress the Caulonians,
who transferred their “Penati” to a well fortified place not
far from the remains of their superb city. By wish of the conquerors,
the Greek name of Caulonia was changed to the Latin name of
Castelvetere and, as a consequence, the remaining survivors
had to forget their Magna-Grecian traditions. The ancient inhabitants
of Caulonia however, found comfort and hope in the Evangelical
message of the Redeemer.
With the passage of time, through the turbulent events
of that era, Castelvetere once more shone in the firmament of
Calabria.
Around the year 1000, the town, “encircled by walls
and ramparts”, was, according to the Partenopean archives, a
feudal town belonging to Malgeri d’Altavilla, one of the descendants
of the Tancredi who took part in the first Crusade and whom
the poet Torquato Tasso wrote about in his “Gerusalemme Liberata”
as a generous Christian nobleman and a thinker.
From Malgeri d’Altavilla, the town passed on to Roberto
Filangeri, then Matteo de Ara, Anselmo de Caprosio, Roberto
de Vetro, and on to the Marquis Muscatello, Bardessino Galeoffo
and Antonio de Centelles. This last feudal lord betrayed the
royal trust and the town was given to Iacopo Carafa, son of
Onofrio, by the king, Ferdinando d’Aragona.
In
1497, Castelvetere had the honour of having the Pope, Paolo
IV, one of the members of the Carafa family, as its guest. In
1525 it welcomed the winner of the duel of Barletta, Ettore
Fieramosca, as a guest of his brother, Cesare, to whom, in 1520,
Carlo V had given the iron and the lead mines of Campoli, Stilo
and Fabrizia. In 1535 the town had the Emperor of the Hapsburgs
and king of Spain and Emperor of Germany, Carlo V, as its guest.
He was returning from a expedition to Africa against the Turkish
pirate, Khair-Ad-din, otherwise known as Redbeard. He stopped
his galeons in order to visit his friend Giovanbattista Carafa.
In 1571 the town took part in the Battle of Lepanto with the
“galera del corsale” at the side of the Spaniards, the Venetians,
the Popes, the Savoias and the Cavalieri di Malta against the
Turks who had occupied Cyprus. Then in October 1594 the town
courageously managed to repress the attacks of the “Flagello
delle Calabrie”, Sinam Cigalà. In 1738 following the Polish
succession war, Castelvetere passed over from the Carafa family
to the Bourbons who dominated it until the advent of Garibaldi.
On the 30th of June 1862, following the territorial
unification of Italy, by the Ministerial Decree N.123830 of
the Italian Home Office, Castelvetere changed its name back
to the ancient glorious one of Caulonia.
During the Fascist Regime, it had the honour of obtaining,
after Milan, the pennant of Italy, while in the sports field
it won second place in the “Dux” campsite in Rome. In March
1945 it lived its five days which resulted in the proclamation
of “Republic of Caulonia”, by hand of the Elementary teacher
Pasquale Cavallaro, which because of a series of unfavourable
circumstances, was quickly forgotten. Today, out of all the
96 Municipalities in the Province of Reggio Calabria, Caulonia
comes third place for territorial extension, eleventh for number
of inhabitants and it counts about twenty fractions both large
and small.
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