The town stands at 240 metres on a hill facing the lower valley of the Savuto, and from there you can watch the river enter the Tyrrhenian; at sunset you can also see the Aeolian islands, Stromboli above all. Where Terina, the colony of Croton, once stood is still argued over: many place it on the Piano della Tirena, within the territory of Nocera, because the Savuto and the river Grande join just before the sea exactly as Strabo describes them; others move it into the territory of Lamezia, because of the coins found there. The French traveller Lenormant ruled the plain out, but he had been shown it from the wrong hill and never managed to see the two rivers. The name of the town also has two explanations: the walnut groves that covered the land, or the refugees of Terina who, their city destroyed, stopped here.
The first settlement of Nocera was the Motta, at the confluence of two rivers and ringed by the Fosso Cupo: in case of attack that ditch was filled with water taken from the rivers through a system of hydraulic works, and one entered by a bridge that could be pulled back. One of the two watchtowers is still standing. The place name Pietra della Nave is documented at least from 1240, since it appears in a privilege of Frederick the Second that speaks of the Terra Noceriae and its port. In the mother church the dome rises 32 metres from the ground and was finished in 1828 by carpenters who came from nearby San Lucido; the patron is celebrated on 24 June and then on 5 February as Saint John of the earthquakes, because legend says that on that day he preserved the town from the earthquake of 1638. In the church of the Annunziata, on Holy Saturday, the procession of the Sorrowful Virgin and the dead Christ is accompanied by the centuries-old rite of the vattienti, the flagellants. And in a comune of fewer than five thousand people there is a state conservatory of music.
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📅 Every year, on 5 February, Saint John of the earthquakes
Nocera Terinese also celebrates Saint John the Baptist on 5 February, as «Saint John of the earthquakes»: according to legend, on this day the saint preserved the town from the tragic 1638 earthquake.
📅 Every year, on 24 June
Nocera Terinese celebrates Saint John the Baptist on 24 June, in the church dedicated to him. The feast is also renewed on 5 February and 8 September.
📅 Every year, on 8 September
Nocera Terinese also celebrates Saint John the Baptist on 8 September, in addition to the occurrences of 24 June and 5 February.
Sweet enough to go into ice cream, grown along a strip of Tyrrhenian coast: Cipolla Rossa di Tropea Calabria has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2008.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Nocera Terinese, but an easy day trip away.
