Fabrizia

Leaving Mongiana, travelling along a mountain road lined with fir, pine and chestnut trees, one reaches Fabrizia. The settlement is named after the nobleman Fabrizio di Carafa, who wished that, in 1591, in these lands included in his fiefdom, a village should arise, to which, as was customary, his name was given as a sign of homage to the feudal lord. Fabrizio, who a few years later would be named prince of Roccella, belonged to one of the most illustrious families of the Kingdom of Naples, which boasted, among other things, a pope, Paul IV, elected to the throne of Peter in 1555.

Fabrizia, like Nardodipace, also suffered devastation from the two disastrous floods of 1951 and 1972. In the case of Fabrizia the settlement was not relocated but large parts of the town were gradually abandoned. At one time this was one of the most prosperous and populous towns in the Serre. Today it has just over two thousand inhabitants, less than half the number it had in the 1960s. The main reason for such rapid depopulation was first and foremost the strong migration movement that affected Calabria after World War II and which, in the case of Fabrizia, had as its main destination Germany and the Brescian area, in addition to the gradual depopulation of the region’s inland areas and the displacement of inhabitants to coastal towns or larger urban centers.
The town seems to relive its former splendor in the summer and during the days when the feast of the patron saint St. Anthony is celebrated, during which it once again becomes the center of the vast Serre area and, also thanks to the fair held there and the solemn religious rites, attracts pilgrims even from coastal towns.
The town’s important past can be grasped from some valuable architectural evidence. Along the streets of the old town center still overlook houses and aristocratic palaces adorned with portals, gattoni and granite basalt tiles, as well as splendid wrought-iron and cast-iron balustrades, probably cast in nearby Mongiana.
A visit to Fabrizia can only begin in Piazza Regina Margherita, dominated by the superb granite facade with its elegant neoclassical profile of the Chiesa Matrice. The building stands on an earlier foundation from the late 16th century and is dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie although it is known to all as the church of St. Anthony. The interior houses a valuable cycle of frescoes by Neapolitan painters Zimatore and Grillo. The imposing high altar, in mixed marble, houses instead in a niche the 18th-century wooden statue of St. Anthony by a Neapolitan workshop.
Opposite the church of Our Lady of Grace stands the little church of the Rosary, once the chapel of the palace that stands not far away and occupies the third side of the square.

In Fabrizia it is known as “la Cavalera” and was the palace built by the Carafa family that was probably used by the feudal lord and his dignitaries while traveling along the villages of the fiefdom. Unfortunately, little remains of the original form and architecture, which can nevertheless be imagined from the surviving elements.

Another noteworthy monument is the Church of the Carmine, built around the middle of the 18th century with a façade that is also neoclassical, in masonry, punctuated by granite cornices and pilasters. Of great interest is the monumental wooden statue of the titular saint that bears the signature, as restorer, of Serrese sculptor Vincenzo Zaffino. To tell the truth, the work appears very similar to Zaffino’s to the extent that it suggests that the intervention, rather than a restoration, consisted of a heavy remaking of an older sculpture.