OUR TOWN :AMENDOLARA



The name Amendolara probably derives from the Latin amygdalaria (mandorla!), because of the elevated production of almonds.according to the numerous archaelogical discoveries found in the area, it is thought that the territory was already inhabited in the neolitic period (6000-4000 BC) and that the human presence becomes stable in the protostoric age (3500-8000 BC) when a community of Enotri settled in the area called today "Rione Vecchio". With the foundation of Sybaris  by  the Acheans, most part of the population that was living in the protostoric village of Rione Vecchio in VII sec. BC  moved  to the bright and vast promontory of S.Nicola. In this area rose the Magno-greca city of Lagaria , that later became Amendolara.

A legend narrates that Epeo, the famous builder of the Horse of Troy, after the destruction of the city, caught by a storm in proximity of our coasts, promised  to Athena to build a city in her honour    if he reached safe and sound the coasts of Magna Graecia. Once on the new land  Epeo built a city calling it Lagaria.

The city of the famous Lagaria had big houses and straight roads rose on this big city which at that time should had been nearer to the sea than the remains prove to be not; the walls  were built with “raw” bricks that stood on stone foundations and sustained covers made with flat bents. Furnaces and many loom counterbalances  testify the great number of jobs that were  practiced which ranged from the production of crockery  and terracotta stuff to the manufacturing of wool cloth. It has been found on 50 hectars of city ground a great range and quantity of ceramics : jugs, vases, amphoras, used for wine, oil, and to store cereals. This city disappeared with the destruction of Sybaris by Crotoniatis.

After the  Roman domination the country  had a flourishing religious life first with the Byzantine activity, then with the circestence one as it is  testified by the numerous Churches and the hermitic caves situated on most part of the territory. With the construction of the Castle, toward the year 1000 there have been a long series of dynasties started  by the Svevis,  the Angioinis, the Signoria  of  Della Marra, of Montalto, of Cognetta, of Gambacorta, of S.Felice, of S. Severino, of Caraffa, of Pignatelli from Cerchiara, of Pinion, of Castrocucco, of Loffredo, of De Nobili, of Pignatelli di Bello Sguardo  and finally of Gallerano. In  XV sec. under the rule of  Sanseverino, two illustrious writers and literates were born, Pomponio Leto, founder of the Roman   Archeological Academy and Facio Patarino. In  XVI sec. the Dominicans built the  Convent and the  watching tower “Torre Spaccata” called today by this name because it is broken .

                

For about two centuries the area witnessed the battles between vassals and Commune for the  conquest of the  land confiscated during the  feudal period. In 1700 the pieces of that land had, little by little, become real "farms" and were split between  the Municipality and the State, that  sold them to the  exponents of the most powerful bourgeois families of Amendolara of whom we can admire today the  fine buildings. During  XIX century Amendolara was the centre of diffusion of the liberal ideas, but it also suffered the  sacking of the most important works of art kept in its churches.