Rose

The town climbs the last western spurs of the Sila Grande and looks down into the valley of the Crati, but its territory is above all vertical: it runs from the 122 metres of its lowest point to the 1395 of its highest, while the main square stands at 389 metres and the town hall at 423. That difference in height also decides what people do: above 900 metres are the pine woods, the ideal setting for mushrooms; lower down are the olive groves, the chestnut woods, the figs and the vines, and the wine of the Sovarette district is the most renowned. The churches are many for a town of this size, and one has a dedication unusual for Calabria: saint Florian of Lorch. Of the feudal past there remains the castle.

What Rose has always known how to do best, however, is wood. Woodwork is the strong point of the local creativity, and it shows in the churches and inside the houses: the works of the masters Viapiana, Infante, Petrone and Bria are cited by name, one by one, as is done with authors. The main square is named after Gaetano Argento, jurist and magistrate, born at Cosenza in 1661 to a family that came from precisely here. Having moved to Naples, he inherited the chambers of Serafino Biscardi, and in those chambers Giambattista Vico and Pietro Giannone did their training; from 1707 he was counsellor of the Sacro Regio Consiglio and in 1714 he became its president. He died in Naples in 1730 and is buried in the church of San Giovanni a Carbonara.