Grimaldi

Grimaldi was born out of six casali: Sant'Anastasio, Santa Caterina, Trinità, San Pietro, Santo Stefano and San Domenico degli Schiavi. A different manuscript tradition gives a slightly different list, and the disagreement itself tells you what the place was: small farming and shepherding clusters scattered over the territory. Between the eleventh and the twelfth centuries the people of those casali gathered into a single safer settlement, high up, protected by cliffs and slopes, with three controlled entrances — the gate of the Valley, the gate of the Portello, the gate of Serralonga — and cisterns to collect water. That place is called old Grimaldi today, and because of its castle it was also called Motta Grimalda. The name is traced back to Grimoald, duke of Benevento and king of the Lombards.

In 1369 Joan of Naples sent a delegation to fix the boundaries of Grimaldo and Mendicino against those of Aiello, and the quarrels with the lords of Aiello went on for a long time. In 1481 Paolo Siscar, count of Cirella, became lord of Grimaldo — and the inhabitants managed to keep clear of feudal obligations by paying a thousand ducats. The village was one of the twenty-one baglive of Cosenza and kept its demesne status; in 1644 it was among the casali bought by the grand duke of Tuscany, but after the revolt of Celico, in 1647, it went back to the royal demesne. On the twenty-seventh of March 1638 a violent earthquake destroyed the settlement, which was rebuilt in a new area called Chiata: that is the core of today's old centre. The Calabrian earthquake of 1905 damaged it again.