Calabria - Santa Maria del Cedro
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At 3km distant from the sea, on a 118m high hill rises the little village of Santa Maria del Cedro, right at the edge of a large plain that before our Christian era was a bay whose waters washed a shore up to the track of today's railway line.
The village of Santa Maria and its surrounding territory has been a pivotal excavation site for archaeologists, anthropologists and historians who have worked together to unravel the mysteries of Italy's origins.
The ruins and artefacts that are being slowly uncovered through years of painstaking work are answering old questions but are also raising new ones.
A large fortress ruin, nearly on the scale of the City of Pompeii, has been discovered and is still undergoing extensive excavation and research. It seems clear that the area was extremely important as a defensive position and a center of trade.
If one visits the Town Hall one can see two enormous frescoes that used to adorn the Byzantine abbey within the castle precincts. If you visit the Town Hall, just ask the clerk to see them.
Santa Maria Del Cedro, steeped in history and at one time an important trade and fortifying position, is now a tranquil village. Local industry is almost entirely agricultural, with the primary crop being Cedro a unique citrus-fruit plant.
The Cedro plant’s flowers are used to make commercial perfumes and many delicatessen foods, like the candied cedro, to be savoured as sweet or dessert, or the cedro liqueur, similar to the well known Limoncello, also a great digestive at the end of a full tipical calabrian meal or even the very typical Panicelli, made with home-grown grape raisins wrapped in Cedro leaves and roasted in wood ovens.
Drive downhill from Santa Maria del Cedro to find the Carcere dell'Impresa, an old prison that was remodeled lately and now hosts the Museum of the Cedro. The museum has its culminating moments during its annual mid September Festival del Cedro in which you can indulge in liqueur, cakes, preserves, perfumes and candied fruit all based on cedro.
The area’s farmers also harvest olives, grapes and figs, which are the basic ingredients for the area's wonderful culinary specialities that visitors can sample at a handful of restaurants located in the town's centre.
Santa Maria Del Cedro, is not only a great teourist destination, is also a wonderful place to pass through, if only to catch a glimpse of its long and unique history. You will find a modern Itallic community, but one whose ways have persisted from long before the birth of Christ.
