Presentation
by Gustavo Cannizzaro

The idea of writing a historical-artistic guide on Caulonia was born at the beginning of the eighties. It was meant as a summing up of a cycle of conferences held by the Municipal Administration of the time in order to stimulate the curiosity and the desire of the Caulonian people to know more about their culture and their history. This , because over the last few years there had been a drop in the interest surrounding tradition and an overall degradation of the historical centre. The Administration felt the need to impose the respect for the “ancient” in order to arrive at the “new”; just as  the poet Pascoli meant when he underlined: “…ai fanciulli fa bene l’antico: la testimonianza che tutto non comincia con loro reca il conforto che tutto con loro non morirà” (the ancient is good for the young: the testimony that everything does not begin with them and gives them the comfort that not all will die with them). Therefor there followed a number of conferences held by qualified experts who touched on the most salient points of the Caulonian and Castelveteran history. The conferences and the debates were flanked by concerts, held in the beautiful church of Caulonia, and by exhibitions showing maps, sketches, photographs and various other documents, usually in the hands of the Jonica Cultural Association and the employees of the Calabrian Archaeological Superintendency and the Superintendency of environmental, architectural, artistic and historical assets of Calabria. This period of historical-artistic re-evaluation should have ended in 1988 with a publication. Today, ten years on, the present Municipal Administration is proposing the publication of a guide for our town as a valid help for the people of Caulonia and for its tourists, to understand the territory profoundly and in detail.

Producing “the guide” also meant remembering the historian Mario Pellicano Castagna, who died in 1988, and paying tribute to his competence, knowledge and help in putting together all the information. He was a distinguished genealogist, historian expert in feudal southern Italy, author of the important sources “La storia dei feudi e dei titoli nobiliari della Calabria” (the history of the feudal cities and noble titles of Calabria), “Scritti storico-nobiliari” (Written documents of historical nobility). Mario Pellicano Castagna created the section of our guide dedicated to the history of Castelvetere, giving a notable contribution towards the understanding of the most significant period in the history of the town, above all because he quotes directly from the original documents available, therefor offering unedited news, first hand, from sources such as tax coupons, bills, legal transactions and feudal documents. Moreover, for their availability and help, we thank: Francesco Amato, Luigi Briglia, Teresa Cannizzaro, Alessandro Cavallaro, Agnese Cavallo, Tonino Commodari, Ilario Fantò, Roberto Fuda, Rocco Gangemi, Maria Mazzà, Francesco Mirigliano, Marilisa Morrone, Eldo Naymo, Vincenzo Naymo, Ilario Naso, Pino Pugliese, Francesco Puntillo, Mirella Simonetti, Vincenzo Ammendolia, who edited the photograpfy and the layout and particular thanks goes to Luigi Hyerace, from the University of Messina, for his contribution to the section regarding the “Carafa mausoleum” and for his suggestions and help in the wording of the text.

Lastly, my thoughts go to my sister Maria, who has always been in love with our Caulonia.

Gustavo Cannizzaro