It was first called Rupella, then Arocella: the name speaks of the rock on which the castle village grew. The earliest document naming the town dates from 1270 and is the sale of the castle that Charles I of Anjou made to Gualtiero di Collepietro. Of the walled citadel there remain the ruins and the palace of the Carafa princes, today a multimedia museum, which from up there keeps an eye on both the eighteenth-century village and the newer part, which has come down towards the beach.
The patron saint is Victor of Marseilles, and on the town's coat of arms he is seen defeating a Turkish pirate. The church dedicated to him was built in 1469 by sailors from Marseilles, which explains how a saint from Provence ended up on the Ionian Sea. In 1545 a sailor from Palermo, Onofrio Buscemi, having survived a storm out at sea, made good on his vow by building the sanctuary of the Graces: on the first Sunday of July the Madonna still goes out in procession on a flagship boat, at the head of a fleet. On Easter morning, instead, Saint John runs three times between two statues three hundred metres apart to announce to the Madonna that her Son has risen.
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📅 Every year, on the first Sunday of July, with the striking procession to the sea
Roccella Ionica celebrates Our Lady of Grace, patron of the town's sailors, on the first Sunday of July, with the striking procession to the sea; on the preceding Wednesday, the statue of the Madonna is carried in procession.
📅 Every year, on 21 July
Roccella Ionica celebrates Saint Victor of Marseille on 21 July; on the first Sunday of July, Our Lady of Grace, patron of the town's sailors, is also celebrated.
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