Belmonte Calabro

Belmonte Calabro, known simply as Belmonte before the creation of the Kingdom of Italy, is an Italian municipality with 3,013 inhabitants, covering an area of 23 km² and a population density of 131 inhabitants/km².

Geographic location

It is located in the province of Cosenza in the region of Calabria, Italy. It is perched on the top of a hill on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea

It is bordered by Amantea to the south, Lago to the northeast, Longobardi to the north, Mendicino and San Pietro in Amantea to the east, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west.

Economy

An agricultural and tourist center, it is famous for the production of "pomodoro di Belmonte".

History

Belmonte was founded around 1270, under the reign of Charles I of Anjou, with the construction of a castle in the territory of Amantea by Drogone de Beaumont, the bailiff responsible for the new fortification in Calabria, with orders to provide resistance to the supporters of the pretender to the throne Conradin of Hohenstaufen.

During the war of the Sicilian Vespers (1282), Belmonte was conquered by Sicilian-Aragonese troops. It was elevated to county status and assigned to Pedro Salvacossa. In 1360 the county was handed over by Queen Juana II of Naples to a family from Amantea, who held it until 1443. In that year the Aragonese transformed Belmonte into a Baronesate and assigned it to the Tarsia family., who maintained it until the year 1578. During the permanence of this feudal family, the Petrarchan poet Galeazzo di Tarsia composed his canzoniere or Book of Songs in the castle of Belmonte.

Under the lordship Tarsia, Belmonte was besieged several times: during the invasions of Charles VIII and Louis XII of France, between 1495 and 1503, and again in 1528 under the French bailiff Odet de Foix, Viscount de Lautrec. The Tarsias were succeeded by the Ravaschieri Fieschi, from the counties Fieschi di Lavagna, an old family of powerful Genoese bankers. Belmonte is bought from the Tarsia for 28,220 ducats. In 1619 the title of Prince of Belmonte was granted to the Ravaschieri by King Philip III of Spain. The principality of Belmonte was enlarged in 1630 with the purchase of the town of Amantea and the San Pedro site. In 1647, during the Masaniello revolt, the Prince provided 200 of his armed Belmontese vassals to Naples to assist the Viceroy. In 1685, the Ravaschieri family had no male heir and the principality of Belmonte passed first to the Pinelli by marriage and in 1722 again by marriage to the Pignatelli.

His Serene Highness Prince Antonio Pignatelli, 6th Prince of Belmonte by marriage and a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in his own right, minted his own coinage which was the famous "zecchino de Belmonte", a gold coin on which appears the heads of both princes and the coat of arms. In 1806 and 1807 Belmonte supported Amantea and Fiumefreddo while they were under siege by French troops commanded by General Peyri. The castle of Belmonte was the last to surrender. Under the French occupation, Belmonte became the center of the administrative area of Cratis, comprising the territory from Amantea to the Piedmontese Guard and including the cities of Aiello, Altilia, Mangone and Rogliano. With the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, Belmonte gained the additional name of Calabro, to distinguish itself from other Italian towns with the same name.

Demographic evolution

Graphic of demographic evolution of Belmonte Calabro between 1861 and 2001

Source ISTAT - Wikipedia graphics

Mayor

Luigi Provenzano since the 2006 elections

1. ↑ Worldpostalcodes.org, postal code n.o 87033.
2. ↑ «Codici Catastali». Comuni-italiani.it (in Italian). Consultation on April 29, 2017.