Polistena stands at the middle of the shortest isthmus between the two seas, the road along which the Locrians travelled to reach Medma, their colony on the Tyrrhenian where Rosarno stands today. The name too seems to be Greek: polis and tenon, strong city. A village with this name appears in the documents in the thirteenth century, but before that the place was called Santa Marina.
On the fifth of February 1783 the earthquake levelled everything: only the little church of Sant'Anna was left standing, and there the dead were buried — two thousand two hundred and sixty-one out of some four thousand six hundred inhabitants, half the town. Polistena was rebuilt further north to a design by the Neapolitan Pompeo Schiantarelli, and the new plan drew the classes as well: the palaces with their granite portals up above, and down below, on the old walls, those who could not afford them.
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📅 Every year, on 17 July; on the first Sunday of August the Teoria dei Santi parades, 26 statues in procession
Polistena celebrates Saint Marina the Virgin of Bithynia on 17 July, in the cathedral dedicated to her, rebuilt after the 1783 earthquake. A broader celebration involving her is held on the first Sunday of August: the so-called Teoria dei Santi, a procession of 26 saints venerated in the comune.
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 Polistena, but an easy day trip away.
