What to see · Lamezia Terme

More places of interest

• Museo Archeologico Lametino

  The Museo archeologico lametino (Lametino Archaeological Museum) is housed on the first floor of the monumental complex of San Domenico, in the old convent of the Dominican fathers, in Lamezia Terme. It gathers finds from various sites on the Lametino plain and follows the history of the territory from the Palaeolithic to the late medieval age, in three sections: prehistoric, classical and medieval.

  What to see

  The prehistoric section, dedicated to the local scholar Dario Leone, starts from the oldest tools of the Palaeolithic hunters and shows the signs of the Neolithic farmers of the plain, from seven thousand five hundred years ago: tools in obsidian, volcanic glass from the Aeolian Islands, and pottery with elegant impressed geometric motifs. There is also an experimental-archaeology display that reconstructs the techniques by which pots were made.

  The classical section, in two rooms, is devoted to Terina, the Greek colony founded by the Crotoniates between the end of the sixth and the early fifth century BC. In the first room are three coin hoards, among them the hoard of incuse coins from Acquafredda, the oldest hoard found in Magna Graecia (shown as a replica: the original is in Reggio Calabria), and two bronze epigraphic documents, one of which is a testament that gives a glimpse of Terinaean society. From a necropolis of Terina, in the territory of Gizzeria, comes a red-figure hydria with scenes of a bride's toilette, datable between 380 and 370 BC. The medieval section presents three monuments of the area: the little church of the Santissimi Quaranta Martiri, the Benedictine abbey of Santa Maria, with a mosaic floor of the Norman age uncovered in the presbytery area, and the Norman-Swabian castle.

  Visiting

  The museum is on the first floor of the San Domenico complex. Since December 2014 it has been run by the Ministry of Culture through the Polo museale della Calabria, since December 2019 the Direzione regionale Musei. Hours and tickets are not given by the sources consulted: check them.

  Our editors' tip

  In the second room of the classical section look for the bronze nail with a magic-symbolic inscription to the god Aion, recovered in the Capo Suvero area, at Gizzeria Lido: among the everyday objects of the oikos, the Greek household, it is one of the most curious.

• Scavi Archeologici Terina

  Terina was a city of Magna Graecia founded by the Crotoniates in the fifth century BC. According to some scholars it stood near today's Sant'Eufemia Vetere, in the territory of Lamezia Terme, and here, at the locality of Iardini di Renda, a settlement with a well-defined urban layout has been under excavation since 1997. Others place it instead on the Piano di Terina, near Nocera Terinese.

  What to see

  The excavations of the Soprintendenza have brought to light an orthogonal grid marked, in Greek fashion, by a street system of which two parallel plateiai have been identified, forming blocks where dwellings stood and, probably, craft workspaces. The foundations were of river pebbles, the walls of mud brick and the roofs of tiles joined by cover tiles; the changes superimposed on the regular layout tell of the city's three centuries of life. The sources warn that the finds support Paolo Orsi's thesis but do not suffice to place Terina with certainty in the comune of Lamezia Terme.

  The city's history, in a land rich in harbours and resources, was eventful: attacked by the Thurian general Cleandridas, joined to the Italiote League, conquered by the Bruttians after 356 BC, freed by Alexander the Molossian and then subject to Agathocles, it passed to Rome in 272 BC and was destroyed by Hannibal in 203 BC. Its coins, with the nymph Terina and the winged Nike, are rated the equal of the finest Greek coins.

  Visiting

  The area is in the Sant'Eufemia Vetere zone, in Lamezia Terme. The sources consulted give no hours or access arrangements for the excavations: check with the Comune. A gold diadem and a treasure of jewels found by chance in 1865 in the contrada Terravecchia were sold in the same century to the British Museum, where they are still kept.

  Our editors' tip

  To see what Terina has yielded, go to the Museo archeologico lametino, in the San Domenico complex at Nicastro: it has coins, bronze inscriptions and finds from the ancient city, among them a testament on a bronze plate and a red-figure hydria.

• Teatro Grandinetti

  The Teatro Grandinetti is a theatre in Lamezia Terme, in Nicastro. It is named after the entrepreneur Francesco Grandinetti, who had it built, and on its main façade stands a bronze statue of Giangiurgolo, a character of Calabrian theatre.

  What to see

  Work began in 1935 at the wish of Francesco Grandinetti and the theatre was inaugurated on 6 January 1946, more than ten years later. In 2010 it passed to the Comune of Lamezia Terme, which restored it and reopened it to the public.

  In the same year, 2010, the bronze statue of Giangiurgolo, made by the artist Maurizio Carnevali, was unveiled on the main façade. In 2014 the play Vacantiandu was staged there, ending in April 2015. The sources also link to the theatre the inauguration of cinema in the city, in 2015, with the film Romeo and Juliet, shot by the Lamezia-born director Carlo Carlei, known nationally as well.

  Visiting

  The theatre is in Nicastro, in the centre of Lamezia Terme. The sources consulted give no opening hours or booking arrangements: check with the Comune of Lamezia Terme.

  Our editors' tip

  Less than three hundred metres from the theatre, in the monumental complex of San Domenico, is the Museo archeologico lametino: the two places can be combined in a single outing in Nicastro.

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