Oppido Mamertina

The Mamertines were mercenaries, devotees of the god Mars, who had left Samnium to escape a plague. Hired by Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, on his death they pushed as far as Messina and took it; they were the chief cause of the outbreak of the First Punic War, and when they found themselves crushed between Rome and Carthage they left Sicily and came back to this corner of Calabria, where they founded Mamerto. Its remains lie at contrada Mella, still largely buried: paved streets more than seven metres wide have come to light, and an enormous quantity of coins, among which the Mamertine ones make up more than a quarter of the total, a concentration matched nowhere else in the south of Italy.

The medieval town grew above the ancient Oppidum and in 1056 was taken by Roger the Norman. The earthquake of 5 February 1783 destroyed it, and it was rebuilt elsewhere, while old Oppido stayed where it was. In the vaults beneath the church of San Giuseppe one can visit the colatoi, the crypts where the bodies of the monks were left to dry out: they were set in a sitting position, tied with iron clamps, and the niches were linked by drainage channels; once the drying was over the skeletons stayed in that position.