Monterosso Calabro

Monterosso, set on a rugged hillside, is characterised by a spindle-shaped urban layout, sloping down towards the valley floor, between the Capana, Monastero and Borgo districts, in which there are still-preserved minor architectures; a tower of medieval origins, located at the apex of the settlement, rebuilt after the 1905 earthquake; notable 18th-19th century aristocratic palaces and mansions, with fine granite portals, including those of Massara, Amoroso-Aceti, Basile and La Grotteria religious buildings, dating back to the 16th-17th century, although reassembled after the 1783 earthquake, enriched with important statuary by Serre artists, such as the parish church of S. Nicola, the churches of the Rosario and Carmine, the ruins of Condolima; remains of industrial archaeology, including a hydraulic ‘via dei mulini e frantoi’ (mill and oil mill road), with a number of buildings and their stone channels with an arched structure, a former 19th-century spinning mill, its façade divided by large windows that illuminate a large ground floor crossed longitudinally by large arches, recently become the seat of the museum centre of the same name, and preserved sections of a graphite mine outside the town.