San Pietro in Guarano

San Pietro in Guarano has 3,649 inhabitants in the Presila of Cosenza, and its territory climbs from the valley of the Crati up to the peaks of the Sila. On 3 October 1806 the brigand Francatrippa fell upon the place with six hundred men, together with the royalists of Rovito, and put to flight the French who were occupying the village, taking twenty-three prisoners: they burned them alive in the square. The French, as they left, set fire to the houses.

The marks of that day are still there: on the ceiling of the old church of San Pietro Apostolo you can still see the holes made by rifle shots, and the statue of the Madonna burned, but the Christ Child was saved — today it stands, blackened, at the feet of the new statue. It is also told that the fleeing French ran into a thick fog and fell from a cliff: a woman was washing clothes in the river, and one soldier, convinced that the Madonna was punishing them, left her some coins so that she would build a chapel to her. The cliff, in dialect, is still called Timpa di Francesi.