From the Byzantine art to the Bourbonic ironworks in Calabria region, Italy

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A journey of history, art and religion that lies between the towns of Stilo, Bivongi and crazy, in the heart of the Serre, among woods of beech and fir trees, water courses ... and so much history!

Stilo

Stylus is one of the most beautiful and interesting destinations for history and art that claims Calabria, belonging to the so-called Byzantine villages and populations arberesche.
And 'the city of Tommaso Campanella and the jewel of which is the Catholic Byzantine art, a masterpiece of southern Calabria.
The position on which it stands Stilo is in itself a great show.
The old village is in fact willing to step up the tufa stone, on a hill with olive trees and vines, definitely far from the original oriental aspect, of the tenth century, when the city was the main Byzantine center of southern Calabria.
At that time received Stilo Basilian hermits and monks who lived in its caves and built the masterpiece that is the Catholic witness of oriental art, jewel of Byzantine architecture.

Bivongi

The country was born at the time of the incursions of the Saracens (IX cent.) That forced the inhabitants of the coast to populate the hills inland.
In the same century there were also Basilian monks who preached in the caves of the area of ??Bivongi.
Main monument is the Monastery of St. John Théristis, two kilometers from the town. It represents a period of transition from architecture Byzantine, Latin Normans (XI century)..

Monte Stello

Who comes to the Hermitage of Montestella, along the road like a madman, or stylus, is significantly affected by the place, an abyss in the bowels of the earth where for two centuries about the hermits lived in contemplation, in prayer, in mortification. The sanctuary is just a natural cave in the mountainside.
It is accessed down a long staircase (62 steps) carved in stone. In the sanctuary are, in addition to the statue of the Madonna, the paintings with the Immaculate Conception, the Holy Trinity, the adoration of the shepherds.

Ferdinandea

The name originates from Ferdinand II of Bourbon, who from 1832 used it as a hunting area by building a small house. Later it was used as the center of the steel and ironworks were built, the barracks, administrative and residential buildings, stables and barns.
The area is almost entirely covered by forests of beech and spruce.
It's possible to see the villa of King Ferdinand and working foundry iron extracted from Monte Stella

Marmarico Falls
And 'the highest waterfall in the southern Apennines and Calabria (114 meters) is located in the upper course Stilaro Fiumara. The site has the same name as the surrounding of the waterfall, below it is a small pond. It is located in the Municipality of Bivongi.

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