The ancient town of Civita (province of Cosenza) is located inside the Gole del Raganello Nature Reserve in the heart of the Pollino National Park at 450m above sea level. Surrounded by wooded mountains and set amidst the rocks, Civita is one of the 25 arbëreshë towns in the province of Cosenza, founded around 1471, by Albanian refugees fleeing the Ottoman occupation of the Balkans.
The three main neighbourhoods in the borgo, Sant’Antonio (the oldest), Piazza and Magazzeno, create a typical urban conglomerate with small alleys and open spaces, called gjitonia, or “neighbourhood”, in Albanian. The narrow alleys run concentrically towards the small squares which in many cases feature 19th century stone fountains.
Building facades with clear echoes of human facial features are known as talking houses or Kodra houses, after the Albanian painter, Ibrahim Kodra who later became a naturalized Italian. Many residences have chimneys, created over the centuries by master wall builders, which are works of art; there are different shapes for individual houses which often have a threatening appearance because they were traditionally built to keep evil spirits at bay.
The historical centre features: the Chapel of St. Anthony, the 16th century Chapel of Santa Maria della Consolazione and the Baroque style Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, built in the latter half of the 16thcentury, with symbols and emblems from Byzantine theology.
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