Pietrafitta

The village is a climb. It runs for two kilometres along the provincial road, between 590 and 705 metres: the town hall stands at 637, the church of San Nicola at 692. It was repopulated between the 9th and 11th centuries by people from Cosenza fleeing Saracen raids, and entered the city's administrative system as one of its twenty-one baglive; so the five historic quarters, Pietrafitta, Cona, Franconi, San Nicola and Vallone, were gathered into a single centre. At the end of the 19th century the hamlets of Torzano and Sant'Ippolito passed to the comune of Cosenza. From here came Bonaventura Zumbini, man of letters and senator of the Kingdom, born in 1836.

At Canale, in 1202, Joachim of Fiore died: he was there following the works of a new Florense monastery he was having built. The place is the church of San Martino di Giove, which tradition links to his burial; beside it stands the Grancia, a probably Basilian church dated 781, which also housed Blessed Ubertino of Otranto. From here, around the year one thousand and again because of the Saracen raids, the archimandrite Saint Hilarion set out with his followers for Chieti, where he founded the monastery that bears his name.