Abbey of Santa Maria del Patire (or Pathirion)

The Abbey of Santa Maria del Patire (or Pathirion) is one of the greatest monuments of Byzantine-Norman architecture in Calabria. It is located in Rossano, a city not coincidentally known as ‘The Byzantine’, in the municipality of Corigliano-Rossano, in the province of Cosenza.

The Abbey of Santa Maria del Patire is also called Pathirion in reference to the ‘Father’ (God) and was founded around 1095 by the monk Bartholomew of Simeri, on an earlier Byzantine foundation. In Norman times it became one of the most renowned monasteries in southern Italy: it possessed a rich library and a scriptorium where the amanuensis monks worked on transcribing ancient codices.

One of these, the so-called Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, is today one of the region's UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is visible and accessible to all at the Rossano Codex Museum (Diocesan Museum).

The Abbey of Santa Maria del Patire has a Latin-Norman basilica plan, with three apses facing east: the nave, characterised by its wooden truss roof, is divided from the two side aisles by four rows of pointed arches. Of the three ancient doors on the façade only the central one is preserved, the two side doors are decorated with arabesques.

Inside, the ancient 12th-century mosaic floor depicting figures of real and mythological animals, a 17th-century wooden crucifix and the effigy of the Madonna del Patire (19th century) are visible.