Calabrian Lace

On the coast, Pizzo represents an anomaly with respect to the Angitolan context-remember that its territory stretched out toward the river of the same name, crossed by a Bourbon brick bridge, only in the 1900s to the detriment of other municipalities-, however united with the landscape of the interior through State Highway 110, the historic route of the Strada Regia, formerly linking the Bourbon Ferriere of Mongiana with the town’s port for the embarkation of iron and steel products. Of low-medieval origins – although tradition tells it arose on the ruins of the ancient Napizia founded by the Focesi, hence the name of the inhabitants called Napitini -, it occupies a promontory overlooking the sea, imprinted in the terminal part by a relevant Aragonese castle; the building, composed of an imposing quadrangular body, two truncated cone towers, of which the major one is presumably Angevin, and articulated internal volumes, is also remembered for the imprisonment and killing of Joachim Murat.
The built-up area gravitates around a central square – a sort of cheerful and varied urban living room -, elongated with the Spunduni on the coastal panorama, defined by elegant buildings and interposed between the Carmine and Chianu districts; the latter, with more popular characters, presents a rather irregular articulation, accentuated in some sections by a strong slope, where numerous widenings, courtyards and steps appear, also functioning as a place of entertainment between head neighbors. More decentralized are: the S. Francesco district, brought together by a long curvilinear sloping path called bassulata, bordered by more valuable architectural wings; the Marina district, where, next to aristocratic housing units and an old renovated tuna fishery, there are common fishermen’s houses; the place called Seggiola, named after the ruins of another old tuna fishery, devoted mainly to maritime activities and garaging. Numerous, in any case, are the facades embellished with colors, cornices and stringcourses, on which project small loggias, sacred edicolettes and, on the portals, some apotropaic masks. Added to this is the remarkable heritage of religious buildings, of 16th-17th-century origin, with neoclassical remodeling, consisting of the churches: of St. George Martyr and the Virgin Mary, matrix, with relevant portal on Baroque elevation and very rich interiors, among which stand out an altar in polychrome marble and valuable pictorial and sculptural works such as St. John the Baptist attributed to Pietro Bernini; of St. Rocco and St. Francis of Paola, embellished with frescoes and statues; of Ss. Ferdinand and Immaculate Conception, called della Marina; of St. Sebastian, with remarkable paintings; of Purgatory and S. Maria delle Grazie, called of the Dead, with crypt; of the Immaculata; of the Carmine; of the Madonna della Pietà; of Piedigrotta, carved into the tuffaceous cliff adjoining the Madonneja beach, one kilometer north of the town, characterized by numerous scenes from the sacred scriptures, also carved into the rock since the late 19th century, particularly prominent in the afternoon hours when the setting sun enhances the coloration of the surface mineral salts.