Discover Gerace

A concise introduction to Gerace, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

Gerace is a town of about 2,500 people in the Locride, on the Ionian side of Calabria, standing on a rock spur at around 500 metres in the foothills of the Aspromonte.

Its scale is out of all proportion to its size. The cathedral, consecrated in the eleventh century, is the largest Norman church in Calabria, with a crypt carried on columns taken from the Greek city on the coast.

Around it are the ruins of a Norman castle on the highest point, a dense medieval street plan, and an unusual number of churches for a place this small — the legacy of a long-held bishopric.

Below, on the coast about ten kilometres away, lies Locri Epizefiri, one of the major Greek cities of Magna Graecia and the settlement Gerace exists because people fled.

The town is one of the officially recognised borghi più belli d'Italia.