Lamezia Terme

Nicastro's origins trace back to the 9th century, when Calabria was part of the Byzantine Empire, when a fortress called Neo Castrum ("New Castle") was created. A great Benedictine abbey, St. Eufemia, was founded here in 1062 by the Norman count Robert Guiscard. It was for a long time a fief of the Caracciolo family and, later, to the D'Aquino. The city was nearly destroyed after an earthquake in 1638 (more than 100 inhabitants died), and the abbey was turned into ruin. The castle, built by the Normans and enlarged by Emperor Frederick II and the Angevine kings, crumbled down. Floods and a further earthquake followed in the 18th century.

Nicastro experienced the highest rate of emigration during the late 19th and the early 20th century (some 8,000 citizens), as well as after the Second World War.

Gold diadem from the Sant'Eufemia Treasure in the British Museum

The baths of Sambiase are mentioned in the Roman itinerary Tabula Peutingeriana, indicating the village was an important destination of the time. A library edition of the map is kept at the Lamezia Terme Town Library in Lamezia Terme in its historical and specialist section, the Casa del Libro Antico (House of the Ancient Book).

The thermal baths of Sambiase were a great and famous place of comfort and rest for wayfarers, soldiers, and messengers. In the ancient times they were called "Aque Ange". The Romans knew Sambiase by the name of Turres, or "towers", after the two observation towers situated there.

But Sambiase already existed during the ancient Greek period, first with the name of Melea (here they are placed in fact its ancient boundaries), and then Terina (of which numerous coins have been found again in the fraction Acquafredda and also the Sant'Eufemia Treasure preserved in the British Museum).[4] With the fall of the ancient Roman empire, Turres was abandoned and devastated by the Ostrogoths.

Byzantine monks who escaped to Calabria from Sicily in the 7th century helped Sambiase become an exporter of farm products. The monks erected numerous monasteries, including that of St. Blase, from which the city's name derived, and taught the farmers to read and write. They developed alliances with great Byzantine cities in Taranto, Naples, and Gaeta, Italy, and Greece and Turkey. Thanks to their work, Sambiase succeeded in exporting its own products, including olives, grapes, corn, and wheat to the whole empire. They formed numerous orthodox monasteries and churches, such as the Sts. Forty Martyrs, Saint Sophia, and St. Constantine, important centers of culture comparable to the great European courts. By the 10th century, Sambiase had numerous churches, of which today only five remain.

Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard and his brother, Roger I of Sicily, stopped at the thermal baths together with their team of soldiers during the difficult attempt to conquer Calabria.

After the Norman conquest of Calabria and Sicily, Sambiase became home to an important and famous Norman university and was among the preferred places of the Norman sovereigns such as the Guiscards, King Frederick II and Manfred, King of Sicily, who also strengthened the power of some abbeys of Sambiase, such as St. Constantine.

With the Aragonese kingdom, Sambiase strengthened its own influence on the central government of Naples. Many students of the ancient university gained important court positions as mathematicians, astronomers and chamberlains.

Sambiase was a most important place for the Spanish and Italian economy.

Main point was the strictness and the share of Sambiase to the Italian wars of independence.

Notable figures born in Sambiase include the politician Giovanni Nicotera, the philosopher Francesco Fiorentino, and the poet [Franco Costabile].

The current Sant'Eufemia Lamezia does not correspond to the ancient city location. The most ancient settlement was the Greek city of Terina, whose ruins were excavated in 1997. The city of Terina is linked to the myth of Ligea, one of the three Sirens of Homer's Odyssey.[5] Ancient coins have been found,[6] on which Ligea's face is imprinted, in some she is sitting on a stone, while playing ball and in others she appears filling an amphora with the water, coming out of a lion's mouth.

Other material evidence of the presence of an ancient settlement in the area of Sant'Eufemia dates back to 1865, when a gold diadem and a treasure of jewels of the 4th century BC were found by chance. At the end of the same century, it was sold to the British Museum of London, where it is still preserved today.[7]

Sant'Eufemia Lamezia (nowadays Sant'Eufemia Vetere) was created upon a hill not long after the 1638 earthquake. The current quarter was built in the Fascist era after the drying of a marshy area.