The Marina of Palmi (commonly called Marinella), is a fishing village in Palmi consisting of a few houses and a small beach in front of a bay enclosed by high spurs of rock. The beauty of the bay contributed, in 2014, to Legambiente's awarding of 3 blue sails to the municipality of Palmi, putting the city in third place in Calabria.
Physical geography
Marina di Palmi is situated on a short flat stretch of coastline overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, close to the slopes of Mount Sant'Elia and the Palmi plateau. The territory is part of the coastline called Costa Viola. The locality is mostly made up of a small shoreline in front of the Marinella bay, from which a few buildings and the hairpin bends of the only road (surrounded by olive trees) connect the district with the overhanging plateau where the old town centre of Palmi is located.
The beach, enclosed by the high rocks of the mountainous bastion of Sant'Elia and Punta Motta, consists of white gravel.
Near the Marina di Palmi there are some sea and coastal caves and rocks. Among the former are the Grotta delle Sirene, the Grotta dell'Arcudace and the Grotta Perciata, while the main rock is called Pietra Galera. The latter marks the southern end of Marinella Bay while the northern end is marked by Punta Motta.
The whole territory of Marina di Palmi is included in the list of Special Protection Areas and Sites of Community Interest of the Calabria Region.
History
At the beginning of the 16th century, the town of Palmi, using its marina, attracted all the traffic along the southern coast of Calabria.
In those centuries the Marina was also the place where the various pirate raids crossing the Tyrrhenian Sea landed to sack and devastate the town of Palmi.
In 1735, King Charles III of Spain sailed from the Marina of Palmi to Palermo for his coronation as King of Naples and Sicily.
On 22 August 1860, the Marina of Palmi witnessed the historic landing of the Expedition of the Thousand in the Risorgimento struggle.
Monuments and places of interest
Open-air theatre
The open-air theatre in Motta is a modern construction, in imitation of the ancient Greek theatres, located near the Marina di Palmi.
Lying along a ridge of Mount Sant'Elia, which slopes down from the historic centre towards the Marina di Palmi, the theatre is located in a natural position, from which it is possible to admire the Strait of Messina, the Aeolian Islands, Bagnara Calabra and Scilla.
The architectural design was drawn up by architects Rosaria Zoccali and Domenico Abbia, while the structural design was signed by engineer Bruno Cassone. The idea of building an amphitheatre was the work of the municipal administration led by the Honourable Armando Veneto, as well as the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica della Calabria, based in Palmi.
The structure, inaugurated in 2000 and with a capacity of 1000 seats, regularly hosts cultural and television events, such as the 'Premio Europa' on Rai International or 'La Notte dei Sospiri' broadcast on Raiuno. The theatre was included by the Region of Calabria in the thirteen archaeological sites that hosted the 'Magna Grecia Theatre Festival'.
Aedicule of the Madonna del Carmine
In contrada Acqualive, near the place where the Saracen pirates were killed, there is a small shrine with a niche in which an image of the Madonna del Carmine with the souls of purgatory is painted. This shrine is called the 'cross of the dead' by the locals, in memory of the massacre of the Turks and some of the inhabitants of Palmi. In fact, the 'dragon stone' was located about two hundred metres south of the aedicule mentioned above.
Motta Belvedere
Going up the hairpin bends of the road that connects Marina di Palmi to the old town centre, in front of the theatre there is the Belvedere Motta. From the viewpoint it is possible to admire, in addition to the Bay of Marinella below and Mount Sant'Elia above, the entire Viola coastline in its entirety, from Punta Pezzo di Palmi to the Straits of Messina, with Sicily and the Aeolian Islands in the background. The towns of Bagnara Calabra and Scilla are particularly visible.
The "Salt Road
From the Marina di Palmi it is possible to walk along an ancient historical and naturalistic path called the "Via del sale", which led from the beach to Seminara, passing through the village of Palmi. The path, which in past centuries was used to transport unloaded goods to the city on the back of a mule, owes its name to salt, as this was the product most in demand and used at the time of Duke Carlo Spinelli, feudal lord of Palmi and Seminara. The path is surrounded by olive trees and allows you to cross the 'valley of the factories', where there are the remains of ancient buildings from past centuries. Among these is a factory dating from 1599, which is the oldest in Calabria. Moreover, in some areas, the route is enriched by a series of panoramic viewpoints.
photo below:
Panorama of the citadel (en route to the salt route)
Belvedere Motta
Open-air theatre
Further information
Fascinating stories preserved by popular memory and handed down to the present day. It is said that on the pebbly beach of Marinella, at the foot of the gigantic Sant'Elia, the ferocious Dragut landed with his troops of disaracens and, before him, Aeneas and his valiant companions found shelter, mooring his ships during their voyages in the Mediterranean.
And it was in the enchanting bay of Marinella that the compelling legend of Ajax originated. It is said that, on his way back from the Trojan War, the fearless Greek hero, second in strength and valour only to his cousin Achilles, landed his ship in the stretch of sea below Sant'Elia to rest and quench his thirst. Climbing over a rocky outcrop, he lost his bow and slipped into the deep water, never to return. Some say that the hero also lost his life here, sinking with his inseparable weapon. It is for this reason that the rock, an extreme offshoot of the mountain, has since been called Pizzo dell'Arco di Aiace, better known among the locals as Punta dell'Arcudaci.
And still today, on nights of full moon, while the sad and melodious song of Donna Canfora from the bottom of the sea of Pietrenere spreads all around and the madness of Oreste blows together with the mistral, the ghost of Ajax appears, with a terribly distressed face, on the beach of Marinella, looking for his invincible bow.
From legend to history:
The happy land of the Phaeacians of Homer's time is thus identified with the Magna Graecia of antiquity and with present-day Calabria. It can only have been in Calabria the land of the Phaeacians: the duration that the Homeric text indicates allows the passage from one coast to the other of Calabria. This passage is along the route Tauriana-Oppido Mella, which connected the Tyrrhenian Sea with the Ionian Sea, across the ridge of the mountain range; it is not by chance that the Romans chose to pass through there a variant of the Via Annia Popilia-Tyrrhenian-Ionian.
Homer wrote that Ulysses, at the mercy of the waves on a raft, was first thrown onto a steep coastline of rocks and cliffs (which we have identified as being between Rovaglioso and Trachina, opposite Lipari, as the currents still carry the pumice stone from the volcanoes of the Aeolian Islands to our shores), Ulysses then sought shelter on the flat shores, perhaps the beach of Trachina or Pietrosa, and it is also known that he stayed overnight in a safe place, a cave not far from the sea. We know that the only cave in the area that was also frequented by seafaring peoples in protohistoric times is Trachina. From there one could watch the sea without being seen and be protected from wild animals.
At the court of King Alcinous, Ulysses recounted the various stages of his perilous journey: Troy; Cape Malea; Little Sirti with the village of the Lotus; the Cyclops; Malta; the island of Aeolus; the rock of Marsala with the port of the Lestrigòni; Mount Erice as the steep Rock of Ramo; Ustica as the island of Circe; Imera as the houses of Hades and Persephone; the Strait of Messina as Scylla and Charybdis, with the rock of the Sirens; one of the Lipari islands as the island of Calypso and finally the last very important station, Calabria, that is the ancient Magna Graecia as the land of the Phaeacians, called by Homer Scheria and that is the territory of Palmi in the Costa Viola.
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The chairs are ship seats. It is in front of our eyes. Here it is, this sea, the sea between lands, the Mare Bianco, the Mare Nostrum, which remains in our throats like a rejected tear, of salt, and makes our souls confused...
The sea of ancient dreams, of the loves, of the hopes of the peoples who cross it guided by figureheads staring into the future. The sea of heroes, who have been challenging it for centuries on fast ships.
The journey, the odyssey, is a journey of love. Love for the lands that the Mediterranean laps and for Man, above all.
fonte :https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_di_Palmi
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