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When the second wave of the pandemic also terrified the residents of Cosenza at the beginning of November, Mario Occhiuto, mayor of the Calabrian provincial capital, asked a higher authority for assistance.
The 56-year-old had a specially made copy of the “Madonna del Pilerio” icon placed above the entrance to the town hall.
The Madonna is the patron saint of the city and is said to have saved it from the plague as early as 1576.
At that time the epidemic had raged in Calabria and wiped out entire communities.
Cosenza was spared, however.
At that time, a black spot formed on the face of the icon.
The believers saw this as a sign.
With this "plague bump" the Madonna had taken the scourge on herself and saved the inhabitants of the city from infirmity and death from the plague.
To this day she is revered for it.
And who knows, thought the mayor, maybe she'll help today too?
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Occhiuto received some critical comments on his Facebook page, but most of all he earned praise for his Madonna campaign.
Here, on the periphery of the continent, the need for assistance is great.
Ever since the national unification of Italy a century and a half ago, people in Calabria have often felt forgotten, sometimes betrayed by Rome.
Excellent city ecosystem in Calabria
Occhiuto, born in Cosenza, felt the same way.
But he was tired of complaining about “those up there”, he wanted to do something, tackle something, achieve something on a small scale.
So in 2011 he made himself mayor and was elected.
He, a member of the Berlusconi party Forza Italia, has held the post since then.
He seeks support across the political camps, works together with Christian Democrats and Liberals, with right-wing populists and civic lists, sometimes with heavenly powers, always looking for majorities to advance Cosenza.
A quarter with potential: Cosenza's old town stretches picturesquely up the Pancratius Hill
Source: pa / imageBROKER / Ernst Wrba
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That seems to have worked.
Only recently, the daily newspaper “Il sole 24 ore” and the environmental organization Legambiente recognized the city for their “urban ecosystem”.
As the only city in the south, the Calabrian city of 70,000 made it into the top ten urban centers with "sustainable quality of life".
A little sensation.
So far, only central and northern Italian cities such as Trento, Mantua and Parma have landed in the top places in this ranking.
But now Cosenza has scored - thanks to a new traffic concept.
Corso Mazzini, the main shopping street, and many of the intersecting side streets are closed to motorized traffic, with the exception of early morning delivery times.
On top of that, cycling is promoted, which is tantamount to a revolution in southern Italy: main roads have been drastically narrowed to make room for a separate, red-asphalted cycle track, which is lined with bushes and trees and is actually used by cyclists;
That too is anything but a matter of course in southern Italy.
Before Corona, life was raging in Cosenza
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As soon as the cars were gone, the Corso Mazzini presented itself as a neat open-air living room.
Tables, chairs, and parasols are now in the middle of the street.
People meet here.
And here you meet art.
Two dozen original sculptures and sculptures by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico and Amedeo Modigliani adorn the one and a half kilometer long mile.
Carlo Bilotti, scion of a noble Cosentine family and art collector, donated this open-air museum to his city a few years ago.
The sculptures by the artist Sacha Sosno on Corso Mazzini also cut a fine figure in the snow
Source: pa / dpa / epa ansa arena
In the evening, the Corso becomes the center of the “movida”.
The Italians use the Spanish term for the lively evening hustle and bustle when couples, groups and families roam the streets, when a mix of scraps of words, laughter, music and clinking wine glasses fills the air and bars and restaurants are busy until well after midnight.
The mayor celebrates the fact that life is raging in the center of his city - if it is not slowed down by pandemic protection regulations - as his greatest success.
“In my youth, in the 70s and 80s, we went to the villages on the weekends because there you could only sit with others in the piazza.
Our city, on the other hand, belonged to the cars. "
Bridge by Santiago Calatrava connects the new and old town
When the mayor, a trained architect, speaks of “the city”, he means Cosenza's new quarters in the Crati valley that were built in the 1960s.
The old town, which is picturesquely nestled against the Pancratius Hill on the other side of the river, had the residents turned their back on.
The streets were too narrow for cars and the apartments lacked comfort.
Most of the buildings are still empty, simple houses are crumbling as well as once magnificent palazzi.
But something is happening: Since 2018, a spectacular bridge has been connecting the new town in the valley and the old town on the other side of the Crati.
The building, designed by the Spanish-Swiss star architect Santiago Calatrava, spans the river like an oversized harp with its 104 meter high steel mast and dozens of supporting ropes.
The bridge by Santiago Calatrava has been connecting the new town in the valley with the old town on the other side of the Crati since 2018
Source: LightRocket via Getty Images / KONTROLAB
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The mayor hopes that old Cosenza will soon be filled with new life.
He is convinced that redeveloped houses in the old town with its nested, steep streets could be an interesting alternative to monotonous apartment blocks for young people.
Fast by the sea and in the mountains
The great highlights of the old town, on the other hand, have already been recently restored - the Romanesque cathedral, the castle from the Norman and Staufer times, the National Gallery, the neoclassical Teatro Rendano, the villa of the composer Alfonso Rendano, which is now a multimedia museum for two and a half thousand years of city history.
As a new visitor magnet, a modern planetarium opened on the right side of the Crati in 2019.
Soon there will also be a museum in his neighborhood dedicated to the Gothic king Alaric.
This had penetrated in the course of the great migration to Italy, had plundered Rome and had died on his further campaign of conquest in 410 in Cosenza.
He was buried below the old town.
Highlight in the old town: the neoclassical Teatro Rendano has been recently restored
Source: De Agostini via Getty Images / DEA / S.
AMANTINI
The mayor's zeal to awaken Cosenza's spirits inspired young Cosentines and kept them in town.
About 32-year-old Giada Falcone.
The young entrepreneur founded an academy for fashion design in 2019.
"We can also learn how to design a collection," says Falcone confidently.
"Young people don't have to go to Milan for that."
Journalist Armando Acri has returned from Rome.
Instead of having to come to terms with fixed-term employment contracts and expensive rents in the capital, he has built something of his own back home.
The 37-year-old has been publishing the culture journal “Infonight” with his brother for five years.
“That's enough for life,” says Acri.
The plus in quality of life is not to be paid for anyway.
“From here I can be at the seaside in 40 minutes by car and just as quickly in the mountains.” In Rome, he especially missed the cuisine of Calabria, admits the journalist and laughs.
"Fortunately, my mother always sent me parcels with 'Nduja." In Cosenza you can get the chilli-hot sausage on every corner.
It has always been like this, however, without any help from Madonnas or mayors.
Source: WORLD infographic
Tips and information
How to get there:
Usually you fly to Naples, from there by express train Naples – Reggio Calabria with a change in Paola (about 3.5 to 4 hours by train).
For a complete journey by train from Germany, a connection via Bologna with a change in Rome is ideal.
Timetables and prices at trenitalia.it.
Accommodation:
"Le Sculture B&B", well-kept accommodation, just a few steps from Corso Mazzini, double rooms from 64 euros (facebook.com/lesculturecs);
"Dimora de Matera", modern rooms in a newly restored palazzo in the old town, double rooms from 80 euros (dimoradematera.com).
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Worth seeing:
Bilotti open-air museum, Corso Mazzini (free entry);
Cattedrale di S. Maria Assunta (Romanesque sacral architecture), Piazza Duomo;
Diocesan museum with a storage library, the relic brought the Staufer Emperor Frederick II as a gift, Piazza Giano (museodiocesanocosenza.it);
Villa Rendano with a multimedia exhibition on the city's history, Via Triglio (villarendano.it);
Castello Normanno-Svevo (Normannen-Stauferburg), entrance fee two euros (castellocosenza.it).
The opening times during the corona pandemic can change at short notice.
Corona rules:
Italy is currently listed as a risk area by the Robert Koch Institute, which is why the Federal Foreign Office has issued a travel warning.
Entry and exit are bound by rules such as corona test and quarantine after return, which can change at short notice.
Further information:
italia.it/de/italien-enthaben/kalabrien.html
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.
Source: Welt am Sonntag