Calabria - Scalea

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Visit and See

Scalea is a picturesque, little town which takes its name from its terraced lay-out on the hillside, at the bottom of the Capo Scalea promontory. With its medieval structures and characteristic houses, almost built one on top of the other, is one of the few resorts on the Calabrian coast to have such a well preserved historical centre with its Byzantine churches, antique castle ruins, medieval buildings, and breathtaking view of the coastline with its long beaches of dark volcanic sand, and steep rocky inlets.

The origin's of the name Scalea is only an intuitive guesswork, in fact the layout of

 the "old town" of Scalea is characterized by various flights of steps ("scale" means steps). The "old town" is placed on the heights and preserves the remains of an ancient wall, it hosts a tower called "Cimalonga" that nowadays is an Antiquarium but in old times was a prison.
Scalea was no doubt inhabited even in prehistoric times, as proved by the stones and bones and animal remains of the Palaeolithic period excavated from a cavern built in historic times almost under, "Torre Talao" a sentinel tower. This tower was built in the past on the "Island of Scalea" to spot in the distance enemies and invaders coming from sea and eventually protect the town. As time went by and as sea retired, this rocky promontory slowly became attached to land becoming peninsula.

Legend has it that the cavern close to "Torre Talao" was dug from the prisoners in "Cimalonga" to escape, but once discovered was also used as a communicating tunnel between the Island and the town in case of need. It is claimed that the City of Laos, one of the most important colonies of Magna Graecia, of Pre-Hindu-European origin and colonized by the Sybarites in the 6th-5th century B.C., once stood an the plain South of Scalea, near the mouth of the river Lao.

Visit & See

Scalea's historical centre hosts a little church called "Chiesetta dello Spedale" dating back to the Basilian Order, housing the remains of Byzantine style frescos, also the church of "San Nicola in Plateis" that was built on an older Gothic construction and that houses the crypt consecrated to "Madonna Addolorata" (our lady of sorrows) which bears the sarcophagus of the angevin Admiral Ademaro Romano and the remains of the philosopher Gregorio Caloprese, disciple of Metastasio and Gravina.