Rende (Arinde in antiquity) is an Italian town of 35 761 inhabitants in the province of Cosenza in Calabria, seat of the University of Calabria. As a result of and following the Presidential Decree of 11 March 2016, the municipality of Rende has the right, in its official documents, to boast the title of city.
Rende extends from the western part of the Crati river to the Cosenza Serre. The Rendese territory has mountainous areas to the west that gradually degrade to the east forming hills, on one of which stands the historic center, up to the Crati valley where the modern city extends thanks to large flat areas. The most important rivers that cross Rende are the Crati, the Campagnano, the Surdo and the Emoli.
The city is located in the
Crati Valley while the historic center stands on a hill close to the
Tyrrhenian coast, between the Emoli stream and the Surdo.
In
winter the climate is dry cold in the hills, while in the valley it
is cold rather humid and the winds blow especially from the north
and north-west. In summer the heat is temperate in the hills, while
in the valley it is heavy and muggy. If once the rains were more
frequent and abundant, now they are varied and irregular so it is
difficult to establish precise isoietographic curves. Snowfall is of
little importance now, with the exception of that of 1939 and that
of the first days of March 1971, when the snowpack in Rende exceeded
50 cm and lasted for more than a week.
The origins of Rende
The ancient Enotri, coming
from the plain of Sant'Eufemia and from Clampetia (Amantea) founded
the primitive Acheruntia near the river they called Acheronte, "the
houses of the forts near the river's waters" and, subsequently,
Pandosia. However, the area was unsuitable for defense during the
wars that followed one another in that period, some Acheruntini
abandoned those places to take refuge in a more defensible place,
today's hamlet of Nogiano. This new settlement, which dates back to
520 BC, was called Aruntia (Αρουντία in Greek), "the houses of the
forts", and later Arintha. The historian Hecateus of Miletus, who
lived in 500 BC, mentions Arintha as a city of Bretia of enotra
origin.
Arintha in the Roman world
The fate of the city
followed those of nearby Cosentia. In the Punic wars, Arintha was
called to arms together with the Pandosians, Besidiesi, Cosentini
and other peoples to block the way to Hannibal, who, having left
Rome, suddenly fell upon the peoples of the Brutio. During the Roman
domination, under the consulate of Q. Cecilio and L. Valerio, the
Brutio became a Roman region and the cities and villages with their
territories were included in a vast administrative organization,
divided into "Municipi" and supported militarily and politically by
Roman colonies. Arintha also obtained the title of "Town Hall".
During the Roman administration they wanted to start the
construction and maintenance of a few rudimentary aqueducts and
roads. Arintha and other villages were thus connected to the main
artery which was the "Via Popilia", the only one that, coming down
from Capua, crossed the Crati Valley and a large part of the
territory of Arintha. In 72 BC when Spartacus with his army passed
through the Crati valley, many slaves among the Acheruntini followed
him, ready to give their blood for that freedom that has always been
coveted. But the armies of Crassus and Pompey soon arrived against
Spartacus who hoped to come to grips with the Thracian gladiator on
the territory of the Crati Valley. He was then defeated and killed
in Reggio Calabria where he had taken refuge.
The Brutio at
the time of Augustus woke up to the lights of the arts, letters and
philosophy. Thus began for some privileged among the youth of
Arintha that desire to know, which harmonizes soul and intellect
with the surrounding universe. Thus were born the first Pythagorean
schools where philosophical and scientific principles were handed
down.
The descent of the barbarians in the Crati Valley
The Crati Valley, where the best part of the Arintha territory
extends, was always considered by the barbarians, as by the Romans,
the key to the south of Italy. Around 410 A.D. Alaric, king of the
Visigoths, with the crew of his barbarians decided to march
undisturbed through the Calabrian Apennines and precisely through
the countryside of Arintha in order to arrive in Sicily avoiding the
siege of Cosenza. From here, in fact, troops and wagons passed,
robbing and destroying what happened at hand. From here they went up
along the banks of the Busento river and the Potame pass to descend
along the Catocastro river as far as Clampetia, on the Tyrrhenian
coast and continue to Reggio and Sicily.
In 543 Totila
descended in Calabria, who reconquered the regions of Bruzio for the
Ostrogoths and was especially relentless in the conquest of the city
of Arintha together with Uffugum and Consentia, which cities wanted
to oppose a fierce resistance. Totila's soldiers then, unable to
overcome the resistance of the various populations, came to milder
advice. They wanted to introduce themselves to the "lords" of
Arintha, Uffugum and Consentia to offer them honors and riches in
exchange for a milder and more benevolent welcome. But the peoples
of the Brutio decided, instead, to respond with refusal and
continuing to fight stubbornly against the barbarians of the north.
Their heroism, however, was in vain, because in the first months of
547 the whole territory of Arintha was invaded by the barbarian
hordes that multiplied excessively; stubborn resistance was broken
by the power of number, and Arintha herself was sacked and burned.
The revenge was heavy, many suffered atrocious martyrdom, while the
few survivors had to witness the almost total ruin of their property
and their homes.
Arintha in the Muslim period
In the following centuries, as
well as for many Calabrian municipalities, Arintha also underwent a
true Muslim domination in addition to the Byzantine and Lombard
dominations, whose caliphs allied themselves now with the Lombards,
now with the Byzantines. However, before undergoing the invasion of
the Saracens, the Calabrians, and especially the Cosentini with all
the forces of the province, including many from Rendesi, had around
721 the task of going to eradicate the Muslims in the territory of
Naples. But the revenge of these fell inexorably on the Calabrian
populations. In fact the pirate ships of the Muslims began to
devastate or destroy the marine cities. And when in 843-45 the
Muslim boldness reached the height of its power, then they began to
fall heavily on the internal countries including Arintha, plundering
the countryside, already annihilated and devastated by barbarian
wars, famines and plagues. Only later, in the year 852, together
with the people of Cosenza were able to rise up against the Saracen
hordes, which were severely defeated thanks to the protection and
help of King Ludovico II. Still in 901, however, the Saracens who
subdued the city of Cosenza returned to Calabria. In September 902
the same Caliph Ibrahim arrived, remembered by the Calabrians as
"Brachimo".
In 914, the emir Abstaele di Squillace, who had
settled in Cosenza, came to attack and destroy what was left in the
town of Arintha, perhaps because he was rebellious to pay taxes. The
people of Arintha tried often but in vain to oppose the Saracen
power. For this reason he withdrew en masse within the walls of the
nearby city of Cosenza. But when Cosenza, now destroyed, was
attacked and set on fire, when its province was completely
devastated, then all the populations were forced to flee on the
slopes of the Sila forming the so-called "hamlets". The people of
Arintha settled in the current territory of Castiglione Cosentino
and imposed the name of Arente on a torrent that stood in that
vicinity. Even today the stream bears this name and serves to feed
the water network of the municipality of Rose.
It makes in
the Norman, Swabian, Angevin and Aragonese periods
After many
years, the few people of Arintha returned to their lands from the
Sila mountains. This choice was dictated by the desire of the
Rendesi to return to the land of their ancestors but above all, it
was the security in the power and favor of the Normans that
convinced them to return calmly to start a more serene life within
the walls of more solid fortifications. The Rendesi again founded
the city center of Arintha on a lonely hill located between the
Surdo river and the Emoli. The Lordship of this new city named Rende
was assumed by the forefather of the Rende family, then passed to
Bisignano with the bishop Guglielmo Rende (1295-1315) and ascribed
there to the Seat of Nobility.
Starting from 1045, Rende
passed under the direct control of the Normans, in particular of
Roberto il Guiscardo, who imposed on the city the payment of taxes
and the presence of a "Lord", the bishop-count of Cosenza. But in
1091 the whole Cosentino district rebelled for the too high taxes.
Ruggero Borsa, son of Roberto il Guiscardo and designated heir, who
took over from his father in managing the territory, asked for the
intervention of Ruggero I, his uncle, and Boemondo, his older
half-brother, who suppressed the rebellion by force.
Boemondo
obtained control of the county of Cosenza for his intervention.
Bohemond of Altavilla decided to build a castle on the current
solitary hill, between the Surdo and Emoli streams, from which a
large part of the Crati valley is dominated. The construction of the
imposing structure was completed in 1095 with the help of Mirandi
Artifices. It is in this period that for the first time the
denomination Renne which means Kingdom in old French appears in
official documents.
Rende and his castle became the base of
Bohemond, before he left for the Crusade in 1096. In his enterprise
he was followed by a Rendese knight, Pietro Migliarese, who brought
with him four soldiers and eight servants, and to whose following
they joined also the Mirandi Artifices already engaged in the
construction of the castle. Bohemond returned to Rende in 1106 and
again in 1111, shortly before his death. The earthquake of 1184
caused serious damage, damaging the castle and some churches, and
Rende experienced a period of recession.
From 1189 in the Kingdom of Sicily there was a struggle for the
succession to William II the good, but only in 1194 was the word put
an end with the descent into the kingdom of Sicily of Henry VI,
husband of Constance of Altavilla and heir designated by the William
himself. Passing through these lands, Henry VI demanded the payment
of huge taxes that the people of Rende could never have honored. In
defense of these intervened Blessed Joachim of Fiore, confessor of
Constance. In fact, he knew the Rendesi family well, having spent
almost a year in the mountains of Rende before becoming Abbot of
Corazzo. After Henry VI's death shortly after, Rende experienced a
flourishing period, thanks also to the protection of Constance.
In the Swabian period, Frederick II confirmed the belonging of
the lands of Rende to the archbishop of Cosenza. When the King came
to Cosenza for the inauguration of the Cathedral in 1222, the
citizens of Rende were present with their banner that depicted the
three towers of the castle on a white and red background, the colors
of the Boemondo coat of arms. After Frederick's death, there was a
dispute over his succession, which ended in 1266 with the battle of
Benevento which saw the victory of Charles of Anjou against
Manfredi; in the atrium of the castle is still visible an engraving
of the time that recalls the presence of a thousand Rendesi lined up
against Manfredi.
In the Angevin period, Rende was entrusted
to the Bishop-Count of Cosenza, whose fate it followed. After
various events, the presence of the Migliarese da Rende family was
found in 1319 at the service of the House of Anjou. Giovanni
Migliarese was appointed knight of the company of King Robert of
Anjou and Godefrido Migliarese was invested with the fief of
Malvito.
In 1422, during the war between the Angevins and the
Aragonese Francesco Sforza, the future Duke of Milan, who commanded
the Angevin army in Calabria, found refuge in the walls of Rende
where he suffered a siege by the Aragonese troops who contended for
control of Calabria. northern. A few years later, in 1437, Rende,
like all of Calabria, passed under the Aragonese dominion and was
given as a fief to the Adorno family of Genoa in 1445. In March
1460, King Ferrante d'Aragona invested the county of Rende (with
Domanico , Mendicino, Carolei and San Fili) the Calabrian noble of
Norman origin Luca Sanseverino, Duke of San Marco Argentano, who
shortly thereafter also became Prince of Bisignano. Luca kept the
county for a few years and in 1466, after the death of Margherita di
Poitiers, former marquise of Crotone, his mother-in-law, who lived
in the castle of Rende for having received the concession in
castellania from Ferrante I of Aragon in 1459 county returned to the
Adorno doges of Genoa. In 1494 Rende asked Alfonso II of Aragon for
confirmation of his privileges and the granting of new ones, in
consideration of the help given on the occasion of the not distant
war events (the war of Otranto in 1481?). With the advent of Charles
V of Habsburg, a new rebellion took place of Alfonso Sanseverino,
Duke of Somma, who had taken possession of Rende in 1528, after the
death of the last Count Antoniotto Adorno doge of Genoa. Following
the defeat and death of Odet de Foix viscount of Lautrec and
lieutenant of the King of France, which took place in August 1528,
the county of Rende was raised to a marquisate and granted in 1532
to don Fernando de Alarcon, marquis of the Sicilian valley and
governor of Cosenza. His only daughter married Don Pedro Gonzales de
Mendoza, lord of Fiumefreddo and Longobardi, and the descendants
took the surname de Alarcon y Mendoza to succeed in the fidecommesso
of the fiefdoms established by the first marquis Don Fernando de
Alarcon. In 1535, Don Pedro de Alarcon y Mendoza led the Rendesi,
who had embarked in Naples with King Charles V, in the battle of
Tunis against the Moors.
In the meantime the Sanseverinos had
by no means given up control of the county of Rende, because in 1543
they gave in wife to Ferdinando de Alarcon y Mendoza - son of Don
Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza - the eldest daughter of Pietro Antonio
Sanseverino prince of Bisignano, Eleonora (Dianora) . One of the
marriage clauses provided that Eleonora Sanseverino became the owner
of the administration of the marquisate of Rende. During this period
the Rendesi were at the side of Emperor Philip II and with
Ferdinando de Alarcon in 1565, under the command of Gian Domenico
Migliarese, in the battle of Malta against the Turks; and then in
1571 in the battle of Lepanto led by Diego de Guiera and a member of
the Adorno family, ancient counts of Rende.
The dominion over
Rende degli Alarcon y Mendoza lasted until 1806, the year in which
the Napoleonic government decided to abolish feudalism.
It makes in the French decade and in the first period of the
Risorgimento
In 1794 the ideas of the French Revolution took
shape in Rende too. The abuses, the taxes and the injustices
increased the hatred towards the Bourbon rule. The spokesperson for
this discontent was Domenico Vanni who received Gioacchino Murat,
Marshal of the Empire with Napoleon, when he passed through Cosenza.
In 1817 the Castle was sold to the Magdalone family, which also
owned numerous lands in the Marquisate. During the Risorgimento, the
Rendesi also got tired of the French and Bourbon and many of them
became Carbonari participating in the Moti of 1820-21 and 1831.
The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy
In 1860, the
enthusiasm for the landing of the Thousand in Marsala also infected
the Rendesi who gave life to the "Central Committee of Calabria
hitter" to give logistical and military support, as well as
supplies, to Garibaldi who with his troops camped in Marchesino.
On 24 August 1860 Rende rose up against the Bourbons and
acclaimed Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Italy, while the same
municipal authority remained temporarily in office.
Coat of arms of the municipality
The civic coat of arms depicts
three of the five towers of which the medieval castle was once
equipped. The fortified complex, in addition to the four corner
towers, was also equipped with another crenellated tower called
cassero or mason soaring in the highest and dominant part of the
building. During the earthquakes, which ravaged the town more than
once, one of the corner towers, the north-west one, was ruined and
was never rebuilt.
Dionysus of Halicarnassus narrates that, around the seventh century BC, Lycaon (king of the Arcadians, son of Pelasgo, and of the nymph Melibea) divided his kingdom among his numerous sons, but two of these, Enotro and Peucezio, were not satisfied with the part attributed to them and they decided to leave Arcadia to find new lands where to settle; with them also departed many other Greeks and their sister of matchless beauty named Arintha. Near the Italian coasts the two decided to split up: Peucezio landed in Puglia colonizing the present provinces of Bari and Taranto, which took the name of Peucezia; Enotro, with the bulk of the ships, continued to sail towards the Tyrrhenian Sea. Landed on the mainland and after visiting many places he decided to settle in the place that is now called "Guardiula". To this new settlement he gave the name Acheruntia, which was then called Arintha in memory of the splendid sister who unfortunately died there.