The town stands on a hill looking over the plain of Sant'Eufemia, and its name comes from the Byzantines, who in the eighth century fortified the village and called it Maghida: that name still survives in dialect. In the tenth century the fortress was taken by the Arabs and fell into the emirate of Squillace; then came the Normans, and the peace treaty of 1089 between Roger Borsa and Bohemond assigned Maida and Cosenza to Bohemond in exchange for Bari. On 23 May 1223 Frederick the Second stopped here and established a great hunting reserve lying partly within the fief. Under the Angevins the castle was given to Egidio di Santo Liceto, who made himself so hated that, in his absence, the people rose and partly destroyed it: after an inquiry lasting two years Charles of Anjou punished those responsible and ordered it rebuilt larger. In the fifteenth century king Ferdinand of Aragon assigned Maida to his son Federico, who granted the townsmen statutes called the Capitoli: they could trade free of tax on Sundays, could not be extradited, could be judged only by the fief's own magistrature, and uncompensated requisitions and corvées were abolished. In the middle of the fifteenth century Albanian settlers arrived, and from them was born the arbëreshë hamlet of Vena di Maida.
In the fifteen-sixties, against the Saracen raids, watchtowers were built along the coast close enough to speak to one another by horsemen during the day and by signal fires at night: Maida suffered no raids. Then, on 4 July 1806, the plain below the town became a European battlefield. Fearing that the French would invade Sicily too, where king Ferdinand the Fourth had taken refuge, the British landed an expeditionary force of about five thousand men under general John Stuart; the French general Jean Reynier, with about six thousand soldiers but little artillery, chose to attack at once instead of waiting for reinforcements, and was defeated. The victory had an unexpected and distant consequence: in London two districts were named after it, Maida Hill and Maida Vale, and the name of the second was chosen in 1910 by a public assembly of the residents. Maida Vale is home to the BBC recording studios, and Alan Turing was born there.
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📅 Every year, on 2 April, with the pasta and chickpea Ciciarata
Maida celebrates Saint Francis of Paola on 2 April, with the Ciciarata: pasta and chickpeas are distributed free to the faithful among the ruins of the Minim Friars' convent, in memory of the saint's charity. The feast is renewed on the third Sunday of July.
📅 Every year, on the third Sunday of July
Maida celebrates Saint Francis of Paola a second time on the third Sunday of July, after the Ciciarata of 2 April.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Maida, but an easy day trip away.
