The village bears one man's nickname. Around 850, it is supposed, a craftsman of Greek origin set up in this quiet spot — well back from the coast the Saracens were raiding — a works for spinning and weaving, and the trade spread afterwards to the villages round about and to the whole Vibonese. Il Filandaru, the spinner, was the nickname of the old man who worked vegetable fibres and silk: it passed first to his descendants and then to the whole village, which is still called that today, and to its people, who here are called filandaroti. Not far off stood the fortifications of the city-state of Mesima, whose history Filandari has inherited.
On 5 February 1783 the earthquake wrecked Calabria, and the account of what it did here is exact: at Filandari six dead and sixty ducats of damage; at Arzona nobody killed, but the village partly ruined and partly made unliveable; at Pizzinni nobody killed and the village destroyed entirely. At Arzona the sanctuary of the Madonna della Misericordia also came down and was lost: its remains were found again only in 1902, by chance, and it is held that under the rubble there still lie sacred furnishings, processional statues and the offerings pilgrims had left for centuries at the feet of the Virgin. A French law then made Filandari a comune of its own, with four hamlets under it. In front of the town hall, at the top of the steps, stands a bronze of a mother nursing her child, unveiled on a Mother's Day.
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📅 Every year, on 17 July; the «discesa» on 15 July
On 17 July Filandari, a municipality of 1,844 inhabitants in the province of Vibo Valentia, celebrates its patroness Saint Marina the Virgin (Santa Marina Vergine); the «discesa» is on 15 July, the «salita» on 9 August.
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 Filandari, but an easy day trip away.
