Terranova Sappo Minulio has a name that is half a conjecture. The village was called Terranova, and before that the rock of San Martino; the second part was attached to it by a municipal resolution of 1864, which took up the theory of a local priest, Paolo Gualtieri, that the village stood where a Greek city called Sappo Minuli had once been. The theory was his and his alone, but the name has stuck.
Today's village is what is left of a city. In the sixteenth century Terranova was one of the largest centres of the Gioia Tauro plain: in 1561 the sources give it between nine and twelve thousand inhabitants, and in 1574 the provincial council of the Church was held here, because it could not be held at Reggio owing to a raid by Barbary corsairs. There was also one of the largest Jewish communities in Calabria, which worked and traded silk and has left its name to the Giudecca quarter. Then came the internal feuds, the Spanish taxes, the earthquakes and the emptying out. The title of city the comune took back in 2005, with a few hundred inhabitants.
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📅 Every year, on 3 May
On 3 May Terranova Sappo Minulio, a municipality of 549 inhabitants in the province of Reggio Calabria, holds its annual celebrations in honour of the Most Holy Crucifix; the patron given is Saint Martin.
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 Terranova Sappo Minulio, but an easy day trip away.
