Seminara gave its name to three battles in less than ten years, between 1495 and 1503, fought hereabouts by the French and the Spanish during the Italian Wars; in the first the Spanish command was Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba's, and from that campaign began the reconquest of the kingdom of Naples by Ferrandino of Aragon. The town looks modern, though, because it was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1908. Among the older things left are the ruins of the fifteenth-century hospital, the oldest in Calabria.
From Seminara came Barlaam and Leontius Pilatus, two of the most important Greek scholars of the fourteenth century; and the Greek thread has not been cut, because since 2005 the town has also had a church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, dedicated to saints Elias and Philaretus. The feast of Maria Santissima dei Poveri has been celebrated on the fourteenth of August since the year 1010, with the procession and the traditional dance of the Giants; until 1908 a varia twenty metres high was also carried through the streets. Seminara is, finally, a town of kilns: the workshops of its potters are still at work.
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📅 Every year, on 25 November
Seminara celebrates Saint Mercurius of Caesarea on 25 November. On 14 August, the feast of Maria Santissima dei Poveri is held, celebrated since 1010 with a procession of the statue through the town's streets.
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 Seminara, but an easy day trip away.
