Bonifati

Bonifati (Bunìfati in Calabrian) is a town of about 2,500 inhabitants in the province of Cosenza, on the Upper Tyrrhenian Cosentino coast, between Sangineto and Cetraro. The old village sits 425 metres up on the north-western slopes of the Coastal Range, nestled between two hills; set apart from it, 23 metres above the sea, stretches Cittadella del Capo, the coastal hamlet that grew with seaside tourism. For centuries a farming centre, Bonifati keeps in its old town the ruins of its castle, churches with works from the 16th to the 18th century and a series of noble palazzi, while the municipal territory counts towers from different eras, from the 12th to the 16th century.

Geography

The municipal territory runs down from the Coastal Range to the sea and borders Cetraro, Sangineto and Sant’Agata di Esaro. Besides the main village it includes many hamlets: Cirimarco, Cittadella del Capo, Iardino, Paneduro, Pero, San Candido, San Lorenzo, Sparvasile, Telegrafo, Timpone and Torrevecchia. On the coastal strip, Cittadella del Capo also takes in the districts of Paneduro (known as Bonifati Lido), Santa Maria and Telegrafo. The historic village instead occupies the hill, between two heights each crowned by a large cross: legend has it that the king and queen of the castle are buried beneath the crosses.

History

Bonifati’s origins are entrusted to tradition. A tale handed down from father to son tells of a rich merchant who, stopping with servants and mounts by the shepherds’ huts at a place called Vaccaro, asked them what they were doing; when they replied that they were grazing their master’s animals, he is said to have exclaimed in Latin “Bene facite!” (“Well done!”), words so unusual for those shepherds that they gave the place its name, benefacite and then benefate. Another tradition has the town founded by refugees from the ancient city of Hiele, who came here after the troops of Robert Guiscard razed it to the ground in 1057. The first documented fact comes about two centuries later: in 1270 the name Castel Bonifati designates the fief that Charles I of Anjou gave to Gismondo Palmieri, in return for his help in the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. The castle, attributed to the Normans and dated to the 13th century, was destroyed by the Angevins in the second half of the 15th century. On the coast, Cittadella del Capo (in Latin Civitatula Capitis) is identified with Fella (Φήλλα), a Greek colony that long lived from farming and fishing and in the 16th century was taken by the Turks of Barbarossa. For centuries a simple farming centre, the town has seen major growth in recent decades thanks to seaside tourism along the Tyrrhenian shore.

What to see

In the old town stand the ruins of Castel Bonifati, the fortress raised to defend the territory. The Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, from the 16th century and once part of the Dominican convent, holds the 18th-century statue of the Madonna del Rosario, wooden statues of Saints Dominic and Vincent carved in 1734 by Francesco di Nardo, a 17th-century wooden crucifix attributed to Father Umile da Petralia, a fresco of the Madonna in Triumph and an inlaid wooden baptismal font. The Convent of San Francesco di Paola, dedicated to Santa Maria di Loreto, was built between 1518 and 1520 by a shepherd, Giovanni Mercorelli, with financial help from the magistrate Niccolò Colono, and keeps a wooden statue of the saint. The small 17th-century Church of the Calvario houses the painting Christ Carrying the Cross between Saints Peter and Paul by Dirk Hendricksz (1601) and a marble Madonna and Child by Giandomenico Mazzolo, donated on 15 August 1535 by Pietrantonio Sanseverino, prince of Bisignano. The Church of the Annunziata, Baroque and divided into three sections, has a 16th-century Annunciation group, an 18th-century wooden choir by Fra Gennaro da Bonifati and an 18th-century statue of the Addolorata.

Palazzi and towers

Besides the churches and the ruins of the fortress, the old town keeps a series of noble residences: Palazzo Favarulo, Palazzo Barbieri, Palazzo Scamardi-De Aloe, Palazzo del Principe and Palazzo Francesco De Aloe, together with the 16th-century Torre di Porta Malvitana. Elsewhere in the municipal territory stand other towers from different eras: the Torre del Capo, dated to the 12th century, the 15th-century Torre Parise and the 16th-century Torre di Fella, while the Torre del Telegrafo, also from the 16th century, has been destroyed and left its name to the district. The territory also includes the Palazzo del Capo.

Feasts and traditions

Bonifati’s patron saint is Santa Maria Maddalena, celebrated on 22 July. On the first Sunday of October the town celebrates the feast of the Madonna del Rosario, linked to the Dominican sanctuary. At Cittadella del Capo, on the third Sunday of August, the votive feast of San Francesco di Paola, patron of Calabria and of seafarers, is held. In the coastal hamlet the churches are recent: the parish church of San Francesco di Paola, consecrated on 25 March 1973 and restored in 2006, and that of San Michele Arcangelo, from 1924; elsewhere in the territory are the parish church of the Immacolata Concezione (1913), Santa Rosa da Lima (1991), Sant’Anna (1995) and the disused little church of San Lorenzo.

Getting there

Bonifati’s shore is served by Capo Bonifati station, on the Tyrrhenian railway, and crossed by the SS18 Tirrena Inferiore state road, along which Cittadella del Capo stretches; from the sea a road climbs to the village at 425 metres. By car from the A2 “del Mediterraneo” motorway: from the north, exit Lagonegro nord, then the SS585 Fondo Valle del Noce to the coast and the SS18 southwards; from the south, exit Falerna and the SS18 northwards. The nearest airport is Lamezia Terme.