history – Page 10

The Pollino Park: Wonderful!

1.9.2019

From Campotenese you can have a trip in three directions (following the sequence we suggest):

WEST ROUTE

A very fragrant private Park of the Loricata Lavender (5 minutes from Campotenese)

A look at the Campotenese plain [site of a famous Napoleonic battle of 1806]
Mormanno (20 minutes away), a delightful and old village (with a beautiful votive war memorial and very hospitable people).

So called Caves of “Romito” (40 minutes from Campotenese, a suggestive karst and dolomite cave, home to an ancient graffiti of a prehistoric ox, dated 12,000 years ago, the first example of art and writing, of ancient populations, certainly Homo Sapiens Sapiens)

Sanctuary of Santa Maria Di Costantinopoli (Papasidero, 15 minutes from the Caves above).

***S. Maria di Cos*****tantinopoli** **Church**

NORTH PATH: THE PARK (it is possible to travel by car to the points programmed below)

Malvento Belvedere (20 minutes from Campotenese)

“Impiso” Hill (stop at the beautiful Fasanello Refuge, after a drive through the forest, in some places so obscure as to must turn on the car headlights in daylight. At the Refuge, sip a coffee or a drink, looking at the wonderful foreshortening in the Pollino mountains that can be seen from the rest area, near cattle and horse pastures).

EAST PATH

Morano Calabro (go to the top of the village, you will find a Norman Swabian castle that can be visited and is panoramic), 13 minutes from Campotenese, also visit the Collegiate Church of La Maddalena, then enjoy a Gelato in Piazza della Maddalena or buy from a local grocer a “Felciata” cheese (a fresh and spreadable cheese, preserved in fern rolls and flavored by this plants).

After Morano in 15 minutes you reach and visit the Aragonese Castle of Castrovillari (main center of the area)

Civita (a community of Albanians, present here since 5-6 centuries will welcome you with their typical craft).

To complement these routes, some naturalistic and historical-religious notes as follow….

NATURE: PARK FAUNA

In general the territory is inhabited by a heterogeneous fauna where there are elements of warm weather fauna, temperate weather fauna and cold weather fauna. Among the predatory mammals, the Wolf appears in the first place and is present in the Park with few exemplars. Difficult to meet, you can see its footprints in the snow.

The Roe deer instead is a species that dwells in the Pollino with about 50 specimens and is one of the native species of the Southern Apennines.

Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, the cutting of the woods decimated the Roes deer and make extinct the Deer.

The Otter is the rarest mammal in the Park and is linked to aquatic environments such as the Lao river, the Argentino river and the Peschiera stream.

The Otter is the rarest mammal in the Park and is linked to aquatic environments such as the Lao river, the Argentino river and the Peschiera stream.

The Fox is instead an animal that easily crosses along the roads or along the paths and is a very widespread species like also the Hedgehog, while the Badger and the Porcupine even if widespread are difficult to see. In the meadows and at high altitude there are the Hare, the Beech marten, the Weasel, the Dormouse, and the very rare Calabrian Forest dormouse.

The Squirrel that has had a good reproduction in recent years is easy to find in the forests of Beech tree, Fir and in the reforestation pine forests.

NATURE: FLOWERS AND OFFICINAL HERBS OF THE PARK

The Pollino Park enjoys the variability of some environmental factors and this allows the development of different plant species. The Mediterranean maquis, above all present in the warmer areas, is mainly composed of Laurel, Cistus female, Arbutus, Erica, Phillyrea, lentiscus and Rosemary.

At high altitudes there are mainly Oak, Chestnut, Maple and Hornbeam Trees. At 1,200 meters, beech dominates, which is the most widespread plant in the Park and there are different types depending on the height. On some slopes there is a mixture of Beech and Silver Fir. Between 900 and 1850 meters or even at lower altitudes there are special beech associations. In a small clearing on the edge of the Acquafredda plain, a group of beech trees offers a spectacle that really leaves tourists stunned. In time, a group of these trees took on a twisted shape, so much so that they are called “snake trees“.

Among the tree species are the Black Pine, the Badger, the Holly, and the Maple.

The Silver Fir, on the other hand, grows only in certain points on the massif, especially in the northern slope, in the Bosco Iannace.

The majestic Pinus heldreichii (“Loricato“, meaning “armored”), witness of the geological history (it can lives more the 1,000 years) of the Park is a precious Balkan element. This Pinus is the most important species of the Pollino Park an important presence is found above all in the Orsomarso mountains, on the Alps, and on the La Spina mountain, and is the symbol of the Park. The Pine, so called “Loricato”, lives above the vegetation belt, has a very slow growth and adapts to any weather condition. Its bark is characterized by large polygonal-shaped gray-ash plates that almost resemble an armor, hence the Italian name ‘Loricato’.

Below one thousand meters we find Neapolitan Alder, Lobel Maple, White Hornbeam and Black Hornbeam.

In the Bosco Mascagnano it is possible to admire an interesting association of Turkey Oak, Beech And Black Hornbeam.

Along the rivers are the Black Poplar and the Black Alder, and among the herbaceous essences the Maidenhair.

At low altitude there are meadows and woods and essences typical of the Mediterranean vegetation. The High Trunk Woods and Coppice Woods are distributed in various ways and the meadows offer numerous species of flowers and medicinal herbs.

The undergrowth is full of spontaneous fruits that are used for the preparation of jams, liqueurs, sweets and are also found in some Mediterranean dishes. Among the fruits we find wild Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries and Juniper Berries.

In spring the flowers offer an indescribable spectacle. The Park’s main flowers include the Gentian, the Narcisio, the Peony, the splendid Pollanulas of the Pollino, the Viola, the Orchid sambucina, and other types of Orchids. There is no shortage of Polmonaria, and Sassifraga and among the rarest species, the Pusatilla Alpina and the Gallium.

Over the centuries, medicinal plants have helped the human being in various therapies that benefit the human body. Pollino park can be considered the ideal environment for the growth of medicinal plants. The Park is full of officinal herbs that grow spontaneously at high altitude.

These plants offer a sublime spectacle by virtue of their blooms of varied colors and release an intense perfume in the air. The most common officinal essences are: the Dill, the Absinthe, the Burdock, the Belladonna, the Borraggine, the Chamomile, the Wild Carrot, the Ivy, the Gramigna, the Nettle, the Cardo Mariano, the Carlina, the Coda Cavallina, the Farfana, the Genzianella, the Lavender, the Mallow, the Mint, the Oregano, the Butcher’s Broom, the Rosa Canina, the Salvia, the Saponaria, the Thyme and last but not the minor the Mullein.

RELIGION AND HISTORY IN THE PARK

-Sanctuary of the Madonna del Pollino in San Severino Lucano

The Sanctuary of the Madonna del Pollino is located precisely in Mezzana a fraction of San Severino Lucano (Pz). On the northern slope of the Pollino massif, at 1537 meters above sea level, stands the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Pollino. From 1975 it is possible to reach the place of worship through a comfortable driveway.

– Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Armi in Cerchiara di Calabria

The Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Armi is located near Cerchiaria di Calabria (Cs), on the slopes of Mount Sellaro, also known as Monte Santo (1015 m asl). The place enjoys a sublime panoramic view that embraces the plain of Sibari and the Gulf of Taranto.

– Sanctuary of the Chapels in Laino Borgo

The Sanctuary of the Chapels or also called Sanctuary of the Holy Sepulcher or of Maria Santissima dello Splendore was built 2 km away from the town of Laino Borgo (Cs) surrounded by a suggestive and uncontaminated landscape from where it is possible to admire the splendid panorama they offer the Pollino mountains.

– Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli by Papasidero

Papasidero (Cs) is an ancient village in the Lao Valley, located under the southern slopes of Monte Ciagola. This territory has been inhabited since prehistoric times and during the High Middle Ages it was one of the epicenters of the Mercurion area where the Basilian monks had found dwelling and always looking for solitary places.

– Laino Castle and Old Town

Laino Castello (Cs), stands on a rocky rise at 270 meters above sea level, and is surrounded by the Lao river. It is not easy to establish the exact origin of Laino Castello but what is certain is that in 1811 Laino Castello was separated from Laino Borgo. A separation that lasted until 1928 when became two municipalities.

– Castle of Valsinni

The historical part of the ancient village of Valsinni is concentrated around the homonymous castle. This area is very suggestive because it is made up of old buildings, including the Mother Church, S. Maria Assunta, and they are placed next to each other and separated by narrow streets that climb up the sides of the rocky buttress on which it rises.

– Aragonese Castle of Castrovillari

In the fifteenth century the Aragonese had taken possession of the throne of Naples and were worried about both the internal revolts in Calabria and the assaults of pirates along the coasts of the kingdom they had begun to protect themselves by building fortresses and castles.

**An Ox of 12,000 years ago (*Romito’s Michelangelo*)**

– Caves of so called “Romito” (Romito in Italian designates a hermit)

An ancient graffiti of a Prehistoric Ox (12,000 years B.C.) and remains of ancient populations welcome you at the end of a long series of switchbacks within a fantastic valley of karstic origin, between mountains, frightening crags and gentle meadows.

Here you can watch this graffiti to a remember that mankind was present, in Calabria, since the time that the unknown prehistoric precursor and ancestor of Michelangelo, sculpted, 12,000 years ago, an Ox with technique that today we would say of bas-relief and, moreover in perspective (seen from the side) !!!

The ox is of an extinct species, among other things, but for the human culture it still lives and throbs in the stone (than you can easily watch in the cave), as well as the hand that carved it, which, though disappeared, tells us how important it is Calabria for mankind!

It is quite the same kind of Ox of Cave of Altamira in Spain and the Lascaux caves in France…

The Calabrian olive tree, from the Bourbons until today

27.7.2019

CALABRIA: A GARDEN OF OLIVE TREES

The presence of the olive tree, this centuries-old plant that turns the Calabrian countryside of Puglia and Campania to green, has been for centuries the peculiarity of the Calabrian lands and of the entire South. Their presence in our territories is so strong that we imagine that it is spontaneous vegetation, nothing more wrong!

The olive tree for centuries needs care so that it grows luxuriant and produces its fruit.

For millennia, in fact, the work of planting the olive trees, including the harvest, involved entire Calabrian families.

The endless expanses of olive groves are the result of centuries of land transformation and how the Calabrians are linked to this plant. The Calabrian territory has been, at least under the botanical aspect, shaped by the wise hands of the peasants who devote themselves to this millenary activity with self-denial.

What has been said so far represents the concrete demonstration that the fruits of these natural monuments have given the Calabria Region the possibility of entering the European commercial logic since the second half of the seventeenth century, intercepting the developments and transformations of the international market.

A LONG HISTORY

Starting from the mulberry tree and the renowned silk production, we arrived at the cultivation of olive trees and, finally, of citrus fruits.

Unlike what happened for the production of cereals, the cultivation of olive trees helped the territory, to guarantee greater stability to the lands oppressed by the fragile hydrogeological conditions (typical in Calabria the floods). In Calabria, or rather in Calabria, the olive-growing has spread rapidly, creating highly specialized areas, such as the areas of Gioia Tauro and Rosarno, reaching, then, up to the slopes of Aspromonte.

Also on the Ionian side, in Rossano and Cirò, there has been an overwhelming rise of this plant. The production of oil grew so greatly that, in some cases, the traditional and secular Apulian supremacy was actually surpassed by Calabria (it is often said, since the end of the eighteenth century, that “when Puglia rests Calabria produces”).

THE DEVELOPMENT UNDER BOURBONS’ KINGDOM

The first strong signs of the flourishing of Calabrian olive growing were recorded Starting in 1735. The author of this renewal was King Charles III of Bourbon, who assisted by Minister Tanucci, implemented a series of reforms that renewed the Kingdom of Naples.

The writer Giuseppe Maria Galanti, in one of his work (“Writings on Calabria, a meticulous investigation of the socio-economic conditions of Southern Italy between the last decade of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries”) wrote:

“Generally olive groves are hoed and are fattened, and the use is that each owner usually keeps or uses small herds of sheep to fertilize. Where there are no sheep, fertilizers are the lupines. In Catanzaro and its contrada the use of the ancient “trappeto” [a olive press] continues. The oil is preserved either in clay pots or in tanks made of Genoa stone ”. Evidence of the very noteworthy diffusion of the olive tree is a series of documents of the time such as, in particular, notarial deeds concerning rents or restitution of olive groves or trappeti.

**Modern reconstruction of an ancient trappeto**

Among the many, we report that, related to the land of Cannavà, one of the most fertile and extensive in the municipality of Catanzaro; here, the Duke of Cardinale, Luciano Serra, had planted an olive grove of 2000 barrels of oil (hl. 10.460). The olive trees, of remarkable dimensions, had a yield equal to about 14 hectoliters of olives (24 tomoli)… and the closed horizon of the dark olive grove and the gloomy air of the immense plain is enlivened somewhat by the fragrance of a squared garden of about 15 hectares. The trappeti are in the village, but the pomace goes to the old trappeto to be washed, which is a building occupying 72 ares of land with millstones 10 and presses 24″.

According to some sources, at that time, the Calabrian olive oil production came alone to represent the value equal to one third of all the olive oil production of the Kingdom of Bourbons. The enormous olive oil production of Calabria is analyzed by another scholar, Grimaldi, in his “Statistical studies on the agricultural and manufacturing industry of Calabria Ultra II“, published at Borel and Bompard’s Book-typographic Establishment, Naples 1845.

Further, Grimaldi, in his “Meridional Question, studies and texts of Borzomati”, wrote:

“Extended cultivation and useful to the Province is that of the olive trees: it was derelict during the decade from 1806 to 1815 so that the olive groves, in part, were destroyed, and, in part, were substituted by many woods. Once the trade was revived, the ancient olive groves began to be taken care of, new plantations were made, and at present almost every site is progress.

Although in 14 municipalities, the olive tree is cultivated throughout the province, of which the qualities called ogliarole and rotondelle, which give abundant oil, and celline, of which less is obtained but of better quality, abound. . In general, they are not taken care of and are abandoned to themselves […].

Fertilizers are not applied to olive groves at all. …]. Pruning is made in winter, in some sites it is not done, in others it gets hurt […].The olive harvest is generally done when these are perfectly ripe, except for very few owners who carry it out before reaching this point. The fruit is partly harvested from the ground and the remainder on the tree is dropped by perturbing the branches. In addition to the damage that comes from the system of cutting down and collecting mature olives, there is the other that derives from keeping them before harvesting for about a month piled up and pressed in places that are often humid and low […].

Olive oil mills, commonly called trappeti, are defective. In fact, the grindstone is a hand and a half wide and with a little sharp cut, so in addition to being heavy and slow moving, it requires a lot of effort to be moved and the shredding of the olives is not well done.

**Life of the village and olive-growing**

The olive oil product is 19,523 barrels, that is cantaja [a certain unity of measure of that time] 107.287 and rolls [idem] 57 and 1/3, and it is little less than doubled in the last decade, since, before 1835, the average product was 10.623 barrels; the price is 55 ducats each barrel. Finally the olive groves can be considered as occupying 312.368 moggia [a land unity measure] of the territory of the province, and are mostly in the district of Catanzaro and in that of Crotone“.

It is clear that the famous Calabrian writer Grimaldi was thoroughly familiar with the situation of the Calabria countryside.

AFTER NAPOLEON

There was a phase of blockade under the Napoleon, but growth resumed in the years to come.

Calabria began to export more and more olive oil, not only in the other provinces of the Kingdom, but also and above all in the main European countries.

The Calabrian olive oil was highly sought after by the industries of Northern Europe, especially by the soap factories of Marseille and by the English textile industries.

Cloth olive oil, the olive oil for clothes, as it was called in the Anglo-Saxon lands, was intended not for food consumption, but used for processing fabrics in factories and for lubricating machinery. This is why the Calabrian landowners were not interested in the refinement or improvement of the finished product.

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Today, olive growing is the fundamental sector of agriculture in the region. In terms of income, it represents 25% of gross salable production.

There are more than 160,000 Calabrian olive farms. Their contribution to direct and induced employment is significant. The development of the crop is essentially linked to the resolution of technical and economic problems summarized below:

– Restructuring of olive groves

– Conservation of part of the plants to meet environmental and landscape needs.

– Removal of old plants that are no longer profitable and replanting of new cultivars.

– Production rebalancing through the containment of the phenomenon of the alternation of the production cycle and the pest control.

– Reduction of production costs with particular reference to that of collection.

– Production of oil with low acidity and good organoleptic characteristics, that is directly edible.