Symbary

Simbario, a town with an agricultural and pastoral vocation, has in the churches of Our Lady of Grace (on the left immediately after entering the municipality) and that of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ its most important monuments. Dating from the period after the 1783 earthquake, designed by Bernardo Morena, the church of Our Lady of Grace has a three-aisle structure and, in addition to the high altar, contains the altars of St. Roch, St. Vitus, the Rosary, the Holy Family, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and St. Anthony. A work for which a possible attribution to Antonello Gagini has been proposed, the polychrome marble statue of Our Lady of Grace, which is the most prized artifact in the church, tells a story of finds and translocations under the banner of the marvelous, if its placement in Simbario is traced back to a local person, a certain Patoscia, who, upon arriving in Soverato, on whose beach the simulacrum had been found, found it prodigiously placed on his wagon despite its considerable weight, which had prevented other worshippers from taking possession of it. Linked to the history of the Dominicans’ presence in this area of Calabria from the age of the Counter-Reformation is the church of the Transfiguration, also with three naves, which already bears in its title a reference to St. Dominic whose death (Aug. 6, 1221) occurred on the day of the liturgical anniversary of the event. Also of clear Dominican influence are the statue of Our Lady of the Rosary and the old altar with the picture of the Mysteries and St. Dominic receiving the crown.