Sellia Marina

Sellia Marina has been a municipality only since 14 December 1956, and it was born of an unusual operation: its territory was cut out of that of seven different municipalities, Sellia, Simeri Crichi, Soveria Simeri, Magisano, Albi, Sersale and Cropani, and the boundaries were fixed by decree only two years later. Beneath that very young territory, however, lies a long history: a late antique necropolis, a Roman villa, two kilns of the third century before Christ, fragments of Greek pottery of the fifth and a stretch of paved road that came to light while the sewers were being dug, which may have been a link between the colonies of Kroton and Skylletion. Local tradition also places a Magna Graecia city here, Trischene, whose name would mean three places.

Today the town tells its story above all through art. In the hamlet of Uria there is the Sentiero Porte d'Artista, begun in 2020: some twenty Calabrian artists have painted the disused doors, windows and shutters of the old centre, which have become permanent works. In piazza Roma stands the Scala dell'Amore, an installation of 2021, and in 2024 a bronze monument was unveiled to Giuditta Levato, a symbolic figure of the Calabrian peasant struggle. The hall of cultures is named after the director and documentary maker Vittorio De Seta. And there are almost fourteen kilometres of sandy beach, which has flown the blue flag every year since 2018.