Buonvicino

Buonvicino (Vommicìnu in Calabrian, Βομβακίω in Byzantine Greek) is a town of about 1,960 inhabitants in the province of Cosenza, in the hinterland of the Upper Tyrrhenian Cosentino coast, a short distance from the sea. The village sits on a hill at 400 metres, on the left of the Corvino stream, and is part of the Pollino National Park, in the area of the Orsomarso Mountains. On a rocky spur above the houses rises the great bronze figure of San Ciriaco Abate, the patron saint, 7 metres high: the sign of a town bound to the memory of a Greek monk of the year 1000.

Geography

The territory borders Belvedere Marittimo, Diamante, Grisolia, Maierà, Mottafollone, San Sosti and Sant’Agata di Esaro and climbs from the Corvino valley towards the heights of the Orsomarso Mountains. Going up the isthmus route that leads from the Corvino valley to the Varco del Palombaro, you pass through a gorge barely 5 metres wide, the Stretto, enclosed between two towering cliffs: to the right of the Corvino lies the Sasso dei Greci, a small plateau in the Salvato area, to the left a small valley between three knolls called Tripidone. The town is overlooked by the rocky spur of the Zaccaniello, where the patron’s statue stands.

History

The name is said to come from the Byzantine-Calabrian surname Bombaci or from the dialect word bombaci, meaning “snail”. Local history has Buonvicino born of the union of three hamlets set along the isthmus route, in naturally defended positions from which traffic could be watched without risk. Salvato was perched on the Sasso dei Greci, on the right-hand cliff of the Stretto: excavations in 1978 and on 20 February 1997 yielded fragments of tiles and plates and animal bones. On the opposite cliff was Tripidone, where a hand-forged iron dagger was found among some walls; the two villages lived from herding and woodland work. Farther off, towards Belvedere, the hamlet of Trigiano owned the farmland of today’s Buonvicino and lived from agriculture. According to tradition, the refuges on the cliffs took in people from the coast fleeing wars, invasions and Saracen raids. The union of the three hamlets, at the end of the 13th century, gave rise to Buonvicino. The town is bound to the figure of Ciriaco da Buonvicino, a Greek monk and disciple of Saint Nilus of Rossano by the age of twenty, who wrote in Greek a biblical Lectionary dated 2 June 991, now in the Vatican Library, followed his master to Serperi, Rome and Grottaferrata and later returned to Calabria; he died on 19 September, according to tradition in 1030, and was buried in the monastery of Santa Maria dei Padri, later called San Ciriaco.

What to see

Above the old town, on the Zaccaniello spur, rises the bronze statue of San Ciriaco Abate, 7 metres high, the work of the artist Michele Zappino. At the foot of that rock opens Piazza Vittoria, where on 17 September 2006, the saint’s feast day, a large boulder broke away from the top and fell without injuring anyone or damaging any cars: an episode the community attributes to its patron. Along the Corvino stream, at the foot of Monte Romano, lies the cave of Venicelle, where Ciriaco alternated the hermit’s life with that of the monastery. Going up the valley you reach the Stretto gorge, the Sasso dei Greci and Tripidone, the sites of the hamlets from which the town was born.

San Ciriaco Abate

Ciriaco was a hieromonk, that is a priest-monk, and an exorcist, and tradition remembers him for his learning, miracles and healings. He alternated the communal life of the monastery with retreat in the cave of Venicelle. He was buried in the church of the monastery of Santa Maria dei Padri, later named after San Ciriaco, in the Mercurito area, at Scala. His feast falls in September: every year on 17 September people climb in pilgrimage to the cave, and 19 September, the day of his death, is Buonvicino’s patron saint’s feast. The inhabitants are called buonvicinesi.

Getting there

Buonvicino borders Diamante, on the coast, where Diamante-Buonvicino station lies on the Tyrrhenian line; from the shore you go up the Corvino valley to the village. By car from the A2 “del Mediterraneo” motorway you reach the coast from the north via the Lagonegro nord exit and the SS585 Fondo Valle del Noce, then the SS18 southwards; from the south via the Falerna exit and the SS18 northwards. The region’s nearest airport is Lamezia Terme.