Brancaleone Vetus Urban Archaeological Park

Among the "ghost towns" of the province of Reggio Calabria, Brancaleone, famous for having hosted the writer Cesare Pavese during his years of confinement, offers a very important glimpse into the history of this area: the Brancaleone Vetus Urban Archaeological Park. A place where time has stood still and you can return to the era when this part of Ionian Calabria was a crossroads for Eastern peoples, particularly Greek Orthodox and Armenians. It is no coincidence that the wide valley that stretches from the Brancaleone Vetus Urban Archaeological Park to the neighbouring towns is still called the "Valley of the Armenians" today.

A community that, from its origins, has adapted and mixed with the local communities, maintaining a series of artistic, religious and folkloric traditions that survive intertwined with those of the neighbouring Greek community. In the Middle Ages, the Brancaleone Vetus Urban Archaeological Park was home to the Ruffo Castle (1364-1515), before passing to the Ayerbo d'Aragona, the Counts of Brancaleone and the Carafa families. The town remained alive until the terrible earthquake of 1783 and those that followed (1905, 1907 and 1908), before being abandoned definitively in the 1950s, when the population moved to the coast.