Simbario

Simbario, a town with an agricultural and pastoral vocation, has in the churches of Madonna delle Grazie (on the left immediately after entering the municipality) and that of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ its most important monuments. Dating back to the period after the 1783 earthquake, designed by Bernardo Morena, the church of the Madonna delle Grazie has a three-nave structure and, in addition to the main altar, contains the altars of San Rocco, San Vito, the Rosary, the Holy Family, the Madonna del Carmine and St. Anthony. A work for which a possible attribution to Antonello Gagini has been proposed, the polychrome marble statue of the Madonna delle Grazie, which is the most valuable artefact in the church, tells a story of marvellous discoveries and removals, if its location in Simbario can be 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, whose title already bears a reference to St Dominic, whose death (6 August 1221) occurred on the liturgical anniversary of the event. The statue of Our Lady of the Rosary and the old altar with the painting of the Mysteries and St Dominic receiving the crown are also clearly Dominican.