What to See in Corigliano-Rossano: Attractions & Sights

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Places 6

Castello di San Mauro Churches · More places of interest
Sixteenth-century fortified farmstead at Corigliano, now a ruin, where the Sanseverino hosted Charles V.
Castello Ducale di Corigliano Calabro Castles · More places of interest
Eleventh-century fortress in Corigliano Calabro, with Aragonese defences and the frescoed Salone degli Specch…
Museo della Liquirizia "Giorgio Amarelli" Museums · More places of interest
Company museum in Rossano devoted to liquorice and the Amarelli family, opened in 2001, Guggenheim prize winn…
Panaghia / Maria la Tutta Santa Churches · More places of interest
Small eleventh-century Byzantine church in Rossano, with frescoes of Saint Basil and Saint John Chrysostom.
San Marco Churches · More places of interest
Byzantine oratory of the ninth-tenth century in Rossano, Greek-cross plan with five domes, tied to Saint Nilu…
Santuario e Convento di San Francesco di Paola Churches · More places of interest
Sanctuary in Corigliano Calabro, by tradition built by Saint Francis of Paola, with a wooden choir of 1776.

More places of interest

Castello di San Mauro

The Castle of San Mauro is actually a fortified farmstead of the sixteenth century, in the Cantinella district, in the Corigliano part of the comune. It began as a centre for sorting and collecting farm produce and is now a ruin, but its nature as a residential and productive complex can still be read clearly.
What to see
It was built in 1515 by the prince of Bisignano Bernardo Sanseverino, in the fief of the same name: a structure with two courtyards, entirely surrounded by a curtain wall, with the main entrance in a crenellated tower. A limestone slab with a coat of arms and a Latin inscription, set on the outer wall of a building under a loggia, records that the prince raised the residence from the foundations. In 1535 his son Pietro Antonio hosted the Emperor Charles V there, on his return from the Tunis expedition: for the stay a wooden palace was put up, with apartments, workshops, stables and cellars, because the masonry palace was not big enough for the whole court.
The owner's residence stands in line with the entrance, on two floors; the entrance to the upper floor, marked by a covered loggia, is reached by a stair of stone and brick, and on the right there is a large cistern that speaks of the complex's self-sufficiency. The battlements and the lookout tower are part of the curtain wall, and the main courtyard is entered through the tower itself. In the rooms around the left-hand courtyard, though reduced to ruin, the layout, the walls and the round arches can still be recognised.
Visiting
The castle is in the Cantinella district, in the Corigliano part of the comune. The sources consulted describe it as a ruin and give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them before going.
Our editors' tip
The fief of Corigliano and San Mauro was the largest of the Sanseverino house: to get the whole picture, pair the farmstead with the Castello Ducale of Corigliano, in the town, where the same family ruled until 1616. Between 1829 and 1844 the farmstead's oil mill was turned into a concio, the liquorice works.
Castello Ducale di Corigliano Calabro

The castle of Corigliano Calabro, also called the Ducal Castle, is a fortress of the eleventh century. A national monument since 1927, it is now a historical, artistic and cultural museum: the upper floor hosts painting and photography exhibitions, conferences and other events.
What to see
Its origin is tied to Robert Guiscard, who according to his biographer Geoffrey Malaterra wanted a stronghold near Rossano in 1073, in the defence line of the Crati Valley: it served less to protect against outside dangers than to make the weight of power felt. In 1192 King Tancred granted Corigliano to the Sanseverino of Bisignano, who held it until 1616. After the inspection visit of Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, the works completed in 1490 gave the castle its «Aragonese» stamp: the keep strengthened and linked by a drawbridge, the moat widened and deepened, three smaller towers set into the quadrangular structure, the ravelin defending the bridge.
In 1616 the fief passed to the Saluzzo, who in 1649 received the title of duke from Philip IV of Spain. They built the octagonal turret above the keep, the courtyard with two flights of steps and the balcony of the Salone degli Specchi, and the chapel of Sant'Agostino, octagonal in plan, frescoed by Girolamo Varni. The Salone degli Specchi, decorated in 1872 by Ignazio Perricci, has a trompe-l'œil ceiling with the «Stage of Life»: women and men leaning over a balustrade, waving garlands and flowers.
Visiting
Among the rooms open to visits the sources mention the monk's prison, the nineteenth-century kitchens, the chapel of Sant'Agostino, the bedroom of the baron and baroness, the Salone degli Specchi, the dining room, the keep and the moat. Since 1979 the castle has belonged to the Comune and in 2002, after restoration, it was handed over to the community. Hours and tickets are not given by the sources consulted: check them.
Our editors' tip
A French officer stationed in the castle during the French rule wrote that from its terraces one enjoys one of the finest panoramas in Italy. In April 1799 Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, leading the Sanfedisti, set up his headquarters there.
Museo della Liquirizia "Giorgio Amarelli"

The Giorgio Amarelli Liquorice Museum is a company museum in Rossano, in the comune of Corigliano-Rossano. It tells the story of the processing of the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra, from which liquorice is obtained, and of the Amarelli family, who have been producing it for about three centuries.
What to see
Opened in 2001, the museum displays the tools used to extract, process and market the root, together with clothes, objects and manuscripts linked to the Amarelli family. According to the sources it is the only Italian museum devoted to this subject.
In the same year, 2001, it won the Guggenheim Impresa & Cultura prize. According to a survey by the Touring Club Italiano it is the second most visited company museum in Italy, with about fifty-five thousand visitors in 2016, after the Galleria Ferrari in Maranello. In 2004 a postage stamp was dedicated to it, in the series «Il patrimonio artistico e culturale italiano».
Visiting
The museum is in Rossano. The sources consulted give no hours or fees: check them on the museum's official website, museodellaliquirizia.it.
Our editors' tip
The museum's premises also hold the family archive, with documents from 1445 to 1986, declared of high historical interest in 2012 by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage. The territory's bond with liquorice is old: in the eighteenth century the Saluzzo, lords of Corigliano, bet on the production of paste and liquorice.
Panaghia / Maria la Tutta Santa

The church of the Panaghia is a Byzantine-era religious building, of the eleventh century, in the historic centre of Rossano. The name comes from the Greek pan-, «all», and ághios, «holy»: it means «all-holy» and refers to the Virgin.
What to see
The church is really very small: a single rectangular nave covered by wooden trusses, closed by a semicircular apse with an upper semi-dome and fitted with a mullioned window. The interior is lit by single-light windows in the side walls. On the left side of the hall there is a small apsed chapel, floored in terracotta and with a wooden ceiling. Outside, the walls have a sober line that contrasts pleasantly with the herringbone decoration of the apse; the church faces east, following the practice of Eastern building art.
Inside are two fresco fragments from two different painting phases: one, older, shows Saint Basil, much damaged but with the face and halo still distinguishable; the other Saint John Chrysostom, with a short pointed beard, a large golden halo ringed with pearls and eyes wide open towards the viewer, as he unrolls a scroll with a Greek text. Falla Castelfranchi dates them to the late thirteenth-fourteenth century, Di Dario Guida to the fourteenth. The church also keeps a sixteenth-century canvas.
Visiting
The church is in the historic centre of Rossano and was restored several times over the nineteenth century. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
A few hundred metres away, on the tufa spur at the south-eastern end of the centre, stands the oratory of San Marco, the other great Byzantine monument of Rossano.
San Marco

The oratory of San Marco is a Christian religious building of the ninth-tenth century, in Rossano, in the comune of Corigliano-Rossano. It stands on a tufa spur at the south-eastern end of the historic centre and is one of the finest examples of Byzantine architecture in Calabria.
What to see
Square in form and with a Greek-cross plan, it has five cylindrical domes with side single-light windows, three apses with mullioned windows on the front and the «bema» altar. Because of the close stylistic affinity it is often associated with the Cattolica of Stilo. Traces remain of an ancient fresco of the Virgin Hodegetria, discovered during the restorations of the nineteen twenties and thirties.
It was originally dedicated to Saint Anastasia. The sources differ on its origin: for some it was built on the initiative of Euprassio, protospatharios of Calabria, and intended for female monastic use, for others it was built by Saint Nilus himself. In any case it is tied to Saint Nilus, who according to one account found it abandoned, restored it giving it its present form and made it a place for living the ascetic life. In the nineteenth century it served as a cemetery for cholera victims.
Visiting
The oratory is in Rossano, at the south-eastern end of the historic centre, on a spur of tufa. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
In the historic centre of Rossano, a few hundred metres away, there is another Byzantine-era church, the Panaghia: the two are easy to visit one after the other.
Santuario e Convento di San Francesco di Paola

The sanctuary of San Francesco di Paola, also known as the church and hermitage of San Francesco di Paola, is a Catholic religious building in Corigliano Calabro, in the comune of Corigliano-Rossano. According to tradition it was built by the saint himself.
What to see
Tradition holds that the church was built between 1474 and 1476 by Saint Francis of Paola in person, when he went to Corigliano at the summons of Count Girolamo Sanseverino, because his son Bernardino was struck by a grave illness. The outer front is in the Doric order, while the interior is in the Corinthian order, with chapels on right and left and a fine eighteenth-century coffered ceiling.
The high altar, raised by two steps, is framed by a wooden choir of 1776 attributed to Pasquale Pelusio and topped by a fresco of the Holy Trinity, attributed to Pietro Negroni. Among the most important works are a painting of Saint Francis in original iconography attributed to Girolamo Varni, a wooden effigy of the saint with a reliquary holding a piece of his rib, the bronze cross said to have belonged to him, donated to the townspeople in his memory, and a piece of the staff with which, according to tradition, he saved the church and the convent from the Ottoman invasion.
Visiting
The sanctuary is in Corigliano Calabro, a few hundred metres from the Castello Ducale. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check on the spot.
Our editors' tip
The saint's bond with Corigliano also appears in the history of the castle: in 1538, according to the sources' account, Count Pietro Antonio Sanseverino had it spread that a servant of his had dreamed of Saint Francis, who foretold victory over the corsairs of Barbarossa.