Gerace

Perched on a sandstone spur overlooking the Costa dei Gelsomini, Gerace preserves the charm of its medieval past. Its stone streets and noble palaces safeguard a millennia-old heritage, suspended between Byzantine and Norman cultures. Its origins are intertwined with the history of Locri Epizefiri, an ancient Magna Graecia colony founded on the Ionian coast by Greek settlers from Locris. According to legend, it was the inhabitants of Locri, fleeing Saracen incursions, who moved inland guided by a hawk—hièrax in Greek—from which the town’s name is believed to derive. Its commanding position made it, over the centuries, a strategic stronghold in southern Calabria, thanks to its control over coastal routes and its natural fortification. Known as the “town of a hundred churches,” Gerace is dominated by its majestic Cathedral, the spiritual center of the area.