Mesoraca

The name says exactly where it stands: Mesoreacium meant, to the Latins and the Byzantines, land between two rivers, and the two rivers are the Vergari and the Reazio, which run down at the foot of Monte Giove; to the ancient Greeks, instead, the same word meant a delightful place. Over the centuries the town has also been called Reatium, Messurga and Maioraca. Its people, for having fought beside Crotone against Locri and for having relieved Catanzaro besieged by the French, were given a motto of loyalty that is also an exact anagram of the town's name: Sarà Meco, he will be with me.

In 1527 a conspiracy fed a peasant revolt here against the Caracciolo, lords of the place, provoked by the lord's misconduct and by his exercise of the ius primae noctis: part of the family was wiped out and only the daughters Isabella and Porzia survived, having fled to Catanzaro. The revolt was crushed by prince Ferrante Spinelli, who then married Isabella to set the fief back on its feet. Mesoraca also tells the story of Sara Rossi, of a noble local family, carried off by the Turks along with other women of the town: the sultan fell in love with her and she, in exchange for her hand, asked to be allowed to keep her faith. Having become sultana, she sent large sums to her native town so that the Dominican convent might be enlarged. That money never reached Mesoraca: it was spent in Naples on other works.