SHARRYLAND
The Road of Serra San Bruno - Bivongi
Home to the Ecomuseum of Ferriere and Fonderie Calabresi, today the municipality is the protagonist of a reputed Doc wine production
Where is
Between the fiumara and the mountain an ancient village
Bivongi is a town stretched halfway up the western slope of Mount Consolino (m 701), a mass of dolomitic nature that the ruins of a Norman castle at the summit make even more impressive. The town has its ancient core at the confluence of the Melodari and Pardalà streams , right tributaries of the Stilaro, in the stretch where the river that gives the valley its name is about to bypass the mountain. The historic center preserves the medieval fabric almost intact, a picturesque maze of narrow streets and ramps that climb upward; very tall houses, one close to the other, connected by arches and ladders.
A wealth based on resources from underground
The site begins to be inhabited around the 7th century, when coastal inhabitants were induced to move inland to escape Saracen pirates and malaria. The village is named as Bobònges in a 1050 document that cites its Byzantine monasteries and silkworm breeding as indices of rank. Under the Normans, the fateful turning point: a diploma by Count Roger in 1094 in fact sanctions its passage under the Charterhouse of San Bruno, which will retain control for eight centuries until the Napoleonic suppressions. A fortune founded on mineral riches, for since antiquity it has been known of the exploitation of rich deposits of galena, a silver ore mixed with lead, the former widely used to mint coinage, the latter for a variety of practical uses.
The village of Mamma Nostra
The Mother Church of Bivongi, originally dedicated to St. John the Baptist Decollate, has an ancient foundation, but it has a Baroque facade following the catastrophic earthquake of 1783. After the most recent restoration work, the church was dedicated to Our Lady with the denomination of the shrine of Santa Maria Santissima Mamma Nostra. Our Lady is depicted there in a wooden statue that is raised on a sumptuous base for the Feast of the Vow, Feb. 5, the day of the earthquake, when the community leads her in procession to thank her for safeguarding all life. "Mamma Nostra's country," is how Bivongi has become known, the strength of such a singular Marian appellation.
An ecomuseum of the mining industry.
Bivongi has been the centerpiece of a mining district that has been of great importance in the history of Calabria since Roman times. Mining involved minerals such as galena and chalcopyrite, important sources of silver and copper respectively, but especially limonite, a mineral among the richest in iron and therefore in demand in the iron and steel industry. Here, then, is justification for the widespread presence of mines, foundries and workers' villages, as well as a whole series of ancillary structures including artificial lakes and hydroelectric power plants. Of all this, however, it is necessary to speak in the past tense, or rather in terms of industrial archaeology, hence the initiative of theEcomuseum of the Ironworks and Foundries of Calabria, which is based in Bivongi.
The ancient vineyards of the Stilaro valley
The town was in the past known for the multiplicity of activities that flourished there, from silk production to metal and stone working. Today its notoriety is mainly due to its wine, as since 1996 it has been the holder of the eponymous Denominazione di Origine Controllata production, Bivongi Doc. A long-standing primacy that is still reflected in the landscape of the lower Stilaro valley, intensely cultivated with vines, from the first Ionian hinterland to the terraces that embroider the hills against the backdrop of the Calabrian Serre.
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The road to Serra San Bruno
INTRODUZIONE
The road to Serra San Bruno
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Stylus
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The Road of Serra San Bruno - Bivongi
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The Road of Serra San Bruno - Pazzano
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The Road of Serra San Bruno - Mongiana
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The road to Serra San Bruno - Fabrizia
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The Road of Serra San Bruno - Serra San Bruno
Where is
