Papasidero

Papasidero is a town of about 570 inhabitants in the province of Cosenza, in the hinterland of the Upper Tyrrhenian Cosentino coast, inside the Pollino National Park. The village stands on a crag at whose foot runs the Lao river, which here flows deep in a gorge for some fifteen kilometres, and its whole territory, between 75 and 1,463 metres, is the Valle del fiume Lao nature reserve. At Nuppolara lies the Grotta del Romito, an Upper Palaeolithic site holding one of the oldest examples of prehistoric art in Italy: the engraving of a great aurochs, dated between 14,000 and 12,000 years ago.

Geography

The municipal territory ranges between 75 and 1,463 metres and coincides with the Valle del fiume Lao nature reserve, established in 1987 by decree of the Ministry of the Environment and covering 5,200 hectares, within the Pollino National Park. The Lao, which rises in Basilicata as the Mercure and takes its present name on entering Calabria near Laino Borgo and Laino Castello, crosses Papasidero for about 15 kilometres, flowing deep in a gorge; near Orsomarso it receives the Argentino, leaves the gorge and reaches the Tyrrhenian at Scalea. Papasidero borders Aieta, Laino Castello, Mormanno, Orsomarso, Praia a Mare and Santa Domenica Talao; its hamlets are Avena, Montagna, Nuppolara, Santo Nocaio, Tremoli and Vitimoso.

History

Papasidero’s history begins long before the village. In the Grotta del Romito human presence is documented from the Gravettian through the Epigravettian and Mesolithic to the Neolithic, with finds spanning 23,000 to 10,000 years ago. In antiquity the Lao was called Laus and marked the border between the Lucanians and the Bruttians. The name is traced to the Greek Papàs Isidoros (Παπάς Ισίδωρος), a Byzantine Basilian monk from a Greek Orthodox monastery in the area; some Calabrian historians instead believe Papasidero arose in the territory of ancient Skidros, a colony of Sybaris that linked Sybaris and Laos, and that the name derives from it. From the Middle Ages the village keeps its layout, with the mother church and the Norman-Swabian castle at the top and the town walls with their gates.

What to see

The Grotta del Romito is a rock shelter and a cave, originally a single space, artificially separated when the cave was used as a hermitage. On the boulder between the two is the engraving of the great aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated between 14,000 and 12,000 years before present and likened in style to Franco-Cantabrian art; the site has yielded the remains of nine individuals of Homo sapiens and can be visited today, with walkways, lighting and an antiquarium. In the village, the medieval old town culminates in the mother church of San Costantino and the Norman-Swabian castle; of the ancient gates in the walls, the one known as the gate of the changing of the Guard still survives. The territory is also home to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Constantinople, from the 17th–18th century, dedicated to the patron saint.

The Lao river

The Lao stands out among Calabrian rivers for the abundance of its waters: its average flow exceeds 12 m³/s, the fourth in the region after the Crati, Neto and Coscile, and even in summer it rarely falls below 5 m³/s, thanks to the permeability of its basin. About 55 km long, it crosses Papasidero along its most enclosed stretch, a deep gorge which, together with the purity of its waters, makes it a destination for rafting and canoeing enthusiasts. Brown trout, rovella, bleak and eels live in its waters. The name comes from the ancient Greek colony of Laos, a polis of Magna Graecia.

Coat of arms and patron saints

Papasidero’s coat of arms, granted by decree of the President of the Republic on 21 December 1978, is blue with a three-peaked mountain in natural colours, surmounted by three gold stars with eight rays. The stars allude to the Latin sidereus, “starry”, by assonance with the village’s name, and sit above the crag on which the village stands; the banner is a cloth divided into white and blue. The patron saint is Our Lady of Constantinople, celebrated on the Tuesday after Pentecost; the co-patron San Rocco is celebrated on the Sunday after the Ferragosto holiday. The inhabitants are called papasideresi or papasironi.

Getting there

Papasidero lies inland, in the valley of the Lao, the river which, after crossing the municipality, reaches the Tyrrhenian at Scalea. Among the neighbouring towns is Praia a Mare, on the coast, served by Praja-Ajeta-Tortora station on the Tyrrhenian line; from the coast you head back inland to the village. The region’s nearest airport is Lamezia Terme.