The town of Cassiodorus, with a Norman castle and ceramics
On a hill a few kilometres from the Ionian coast, overlooking the gulf to which it gives its name, Squillace is an ancient town of Greek origin, the Skylletion of the ancients, which preserves a historic centre of great charm, with stone portals, noble palaces and churches, and a long tradition of ceramics. Squillace was the homeland of Cassiodorus, one of the most important figures of late antiquity, a statesman under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, who, after retiring from public life around 540, founded in the lands of his family, near the sea, the monastery of Vivarium, where monks copied and preserved the works of classical and Christian literature, a model for the medieval monasteries that saved much of ancient culture.
At the top of the town stands the Norman castle, built in the eleventh century on earlier fortifications and later enlarged, with towers and walls, which after a long restoration can be visited and offers a magnificent view over the gulf of Squillace, the coast and the mountains of the Serre. In the town, the Cathedral, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783, and other churches preserve works of art. Squillace is famous for its pottery, produced with a particular technique, the "ingobbio" or slip, and decorated with graffiti, which revives the medieval tradition of the town, with workshops where you can see the artisans at work and buy plates, vases and tiles. Below the town, the beaches of Squillace Lido and Copanello, with its cliffs and coves, are among the most beautiful on the Ionian coast.
Tip: visit the castle and the ceramics workshops; spend the afternoon on the coves of Copanello.
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