Bova is regarded as the capital of Greek culture in Calabria: in the Greek spoken here it is called Chòra tu Vùa, and around it lies the Bovesìa, the area where that language has survived. The village was born when the people of Delia, the Greek colony down at the mouth of the stream, fled into the mountains after the Vandals had laid waste the coastal towns in 440. The Greek rite, brought by the Basilian monks, lasted here until 1572: it was a Cypriot archbishop, Giulio Stauriano, who imposed the Latin one.
In 1577 the plague came into the village through a window. A ship loaded with goods had docked at the shore, a woman bought some fine cloths and hung them outside for the feast of Corpus Christi; the fabric was infected, the heat did the rest, and Bova was cut off by the neighbouring towns. Famine followed the disease. Six hundred years earlier, in 953, the emir of Sicily had ordered a surprise attack: many inhabitants were killed, the rest sent as slaves to Africa. The village stands at nine hundred metres on the Aspromonte, and that is the reason.
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📅 Every year, on 5 May (and on 15, 16 and 17 August)
On 5 May Bova, a municipality of 461 inhabitants in the province of Reggio Calabria, celebrates its patron Saint Leo, co-patron of the archdiocese of Reggio Calabria-Bova.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Bova, but an easy day trip away.
