The Church of the Madonna del Rosario is an important place of worship located in Santa Domenica Talao, dedicated to the patron saint of the town. Founded in 1725, the church has a single nave structure. Every year, on the first Sunday of October, the feast of the Madonna del Rosario is celebrated, characterized by a religious procession that involves the entire community. The church is located in the historic center of the town, representing both a spiritual and cultural point of reference for residents and visitors.
MURALES The Way of Water Work by Leonardo Cannistrà, 2024 mural 580×230 cm The work is a tribute to the women of Santa Domenica Talao who in the past walked along a path to reach the “Cannidata” stream to do laundry and get water. Starting from Piazza Ortora, the ancient path wound along the eastern side of the hill reaching the stream that for centuries was the source of water for the town and which powered a series of stone mills along the valley. Near this stream there was also the ancient “Cannidata fountain”, from which flowed very fresh water much loved by Prince Spinelli of Scalea who, precisely because of the area’s wealth of water, decided to found the town in 1620. The rural path, called “U’ spìsatùru” (via Spesatoio) was crossed by men, women, mules and donkeys for centuries, representing the only existing way to reach the stream and the entire area to the east of the town. Starting in 1923, with the construction of the road, the path fell into disuse until it was completely abandoned around 1960. Since then, no one has walked this ancient rural path which disappeared, engulfed in vegetation. In 2022 the old “Spesatoio” path was reopened and made accessible again as a rural path with high landscape and historical-testimonial value, for sports walks and trekking. The Spesatoio trail is in fact the initial part of a hiking trail called “La via dell’acqua” (The Way of Water), a route of about 8 km that, starting from the village, leads to water sources that are very important for the history of Santa Domenica Talao: a stream, a small lake, fountains and rural springs, up to the spring located in Monte San Pietro which fed the first aqueduct of the town. LA FICARA Work of the “Giovanni Paolo II” Art High School – Maratea (Matteo Antonucci, Carolina Ielpo, Ada Orrico, Giulia Becchimanzi, Sofia Carla Prospato, Stefano Cauteruccio), 2024 mural 300×280 cm The fig in the sunset light is my favorite philosopher. (Fabrizio Caramagna) The work is a tribute to one of the main products of the agriculture and typical gastronomy of Santa Domenica Talao. In the past, the cultivation and marketing of figs was flourishing, so much so that they represented one of the main sources of commercial wealth of the country. The tradition of transforming the product is still widely practiced, in particular with the creation of “crucette” and braids of dried figs cooked in the oven, stuffed with walnuts and cedar. Or the typical traditional dish, the “Scàhttijùoli”, a tasty side dish made with primitive figs in the month of May. MEETING AT THE CREEK Work of the Liceo Artistico “S. Lopiano” – Cetraro (Michelangelo Sabato, Manuel Carluccio, Aurora Cammarella, Gabriel Leprotti), 2024 mural 300×280 cm The work represents a group of women washing clothes at the creek. In past centuries, the women of the village had to go to the “Cannidata” creek to do their laundry and this custom often turned into an opportunity for social aggregation, with entire families, mothers with children, neighbors who organized themselves to go and wash clothes at the creek. In an era of sociality experienced mainly on a virtual level, we wanted to remember an ancient practice of real sociality, when a daily toil activity was transformed into an opportunity for social life and community glue. Project carried out in implementation of the Collaboration Agreement between the Department for Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service and the Calabria Region. – FPG year 2020 in collaboration with the S. Lopiano Art School of Cetraro (Cs) and the Giovanni Paolo II Art School of Maratea (Pz)
EARTH MUSEUM The Earth Museum is located in the heart of the historic center, it was created in 2008 by the municipal administration through the purchase and restoration of a building that was in a state of abandonment. Inside we find a section dedicated to fossil and geological finds discovered in the municipal territory, a section dedicated to the peasant tradition with the exhibition of ancient objects and equipment for working the land, a section dedicated to the history of the country with the exhibition of traditional clothes of the past.
CHAPEL OF SAN GIOVANNI A very characteristic chapel dedicated to San Giovanni
THE CANVAS BY SOLIMENA The Church of San Giuseppe, in the village of Santa Domenica Talao, in the province of Cosenza, houses a canvas by Solimena known for a mysterious “anomaly”. Let’s discover it on a visit to the village, between art and history! In the canvas by Francesco Solimena depicting The Holy Family, kept together with other wonderful works of art in the Church of San Giuseppe, in Santa Domenica Talao, the Child is depicted with three buttocks.
The beating heart of the town is Piazza Italia, a small panoramic square on which stands the bell tower and the facade of the Mother Church with the ancient olive tree symbol of the town. Worth appreciating is the extensive and wonderful panorama that can be enjoyed from the historic center over the entire coastal strip from Scalea to Cirella, with the valley of the Lao River and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the background. Its territory falls partly in the area of the Pollino National Park, acting as a gateway to the Park.
Among the buildings of historical interest are Palazzo Pezzotti, Palazzo La Greca, Palazzo Schifino, Palazzo Perrone from the 17th century and Palazzo Trifoglio built between the 17th and 18th centuries, including: PALAZZO PERRONE /SENISE One of the buildings belonging to a notable family from the 18th century, the largest of the historic buildings in the village. Built on three levels, it was originally a single building with over 60 rooms. On the ground floor on Via XXIV Maggio there is a valuable tuff stone portal, made by stonecutters from Fuscaldo. Around the portal there is a decoration that recalls squared ashlars, while the main floor is marked by high balconies with finely decorated frames and railings. The building has a second entrance on Via Fiume with a stone portal. The two doors give access to small internal courtyards. In the 18th and 19th centuries it belonged to the Perrone family, a rich landowner family whose members were prelates, lawyers and notaries. In the second half of the 17th century it was the home of Don Antonio Perrone, a Bourbon notary. One of the descendants was Don Luigi Perrone, an abbot devoted to the Madonna del Carmine who every Wednesday had bread prepared to give to the people. He commissioned the restoration of the canvas of the Madonna del Carmine with the souls of Purgatory, still preserved in the Church of San Giuseppe. The Perrone family was very important for the history of Santa Domenica Talao between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, as supporters of the Bourbon kingdom and strongly opposed to French domination. They were part of the anti-Napoleonic resistance, thus earning the nickname of "den of bandits". SCHIFFINO PALACE Private palace, dating back to the 18th century, located behind the Mother Church. It has two entrances, the main one on Corso Umberto I° with a portal in local stone decorated in bas-relief. The façade is marked by tall framed windows, the corners of the building are decorated with corner pilasters with stone bases and capitals. A second stone portal is located on Via F. Pappaterra. The building still belongs to the Schiffino family, a notable family from Santa Domenica Talao, owner of very large land holdings. The founder of the family, who lived between 1700 and 1800, was Don Saverio Schiffino, judge at the supreme court of justice of King Ferdinand of Bourbon. PALAZZO LA GRECA The building has three levels and its main entrance is on Via Veneto. It has a smooth gray stone portal with simplified workmanship on the arch's springs. The building, which also belonged to the La Greca family, was the nineteenth-century residence of the lawyer Don Benigno La Greca. His first son was Don Giuseppe La Greca (born 1839), philosopher and poet, a student of De Santis. Among his works are an essay “Christ and Mary: response to the two stanzas of D’Annunzio against the Cross and the Virgin Mary” and “The ideal of Mary”. Another descendant of this family was Vicente La Greca, known as Murillo La Greca born in Brazil in 1899, a famous and important Brazilian painter and professor. In the city of Recife today there is a museum dedicated to Professor Murillo La Greca and his artistic production. PALAZZO LONGO A magnate house in Via Fontana della Terra, which belonged to one of the oldest families of Santa Domenica Talao. It was Don Giovanni Longo himself, with his sister Dalmazia, who wanted the construction of the Chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista, recently reopened for worship after restoration work.
The palace dates back to the 17th century and is located in the historic center. At first glance it attracts attention for the Neapolitan-style stone loggia which, together with the portal, give the palace a timeless beauty. This Palace is very famous because in the 19th century Giuseppe Campagna, the village doctor, lived there and treated Giuseppe Garibaldi after he was wounded on the Aspromonte.
The mother church of San Giuseppe is a religious building of high architectural value, it has a Latin cross plan with three naves, apse and transept, internally decorated with fine stucco. The original plan, built starting from 1650, consisted of a single nave hall with 4 bays to which the large central nave and the second lateral nave were subsequently added in 1662. In 1701 it was the subject of another expansion by the architect Bilotta, on which occasion the fifth and sixth bays, the transept and the apse were built. The main façade is characterised by a loggia with two arches, a rose window in the pediment and a sinuous stone staircase that leads from the square to the doors of the church. Inside, in the apse there is the high altar and the balustrade of the presbytery, both in polychrome marble dating back to 1774. Other valuable elements are the wooden choir with 19 stalls, a canvas of the Holy Family of the Neapolitan school and a silver processional cross from 1741. Of notable beauty is the bell tower, which houses bells from 1903 and with its mass dominates the entire village. The church was completely restored in the early 2000s, on which occasion burials dating back to before 1839 were found inside the crypt. The crypt is accessible and can be visited.
