Evidence of Italo-Greek Culture between the Early and Late Middle Ages

Description

1. City of Gerace: 38.27285, 16.21686
2. Baptistery of Santa Severina: 39.14848, 16.91526
3. Oratorium of San Marco a Rossano: 39.57140, 16.63634
4. Catholic of Stilo: 38.48038, 16.46828
5. Orthodox Monastery of S. Giovanni Theristìs in Bivongi: 38.49521, 16.47080

The nomination proposal constitutes a serial site consisting of 5 components - a city and 4 monumental buildings - which constitute a complex of the most significant testimonies of Greek-Byzantine culture in the western Mediterranean. It represents an extraordinary phenomenon of cultural exchange during a crucial phase in European history. The proposed site is indeed the best representation of Greek-Byzantine culture, which took root in Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy, and developed particularly between the 8th and 11th centuries. It had such a profound and enduring influence that it resisted subsequent dominations, ensuring the continuity of Greek-Orthodox civilization in Italy and Europe. It first served as a center for the dissemination of the culture of the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople and later as a guardian of a cultural heritage, also known as Italo-Greek, which still exists today in various significant material and immaterial manifestations.

The serial site, as constituted, testifies not only to the “Byzantinization” of the Italian peninsula through the military campaigns of reconquest led by Constantinople but also to the spread of Eastern monasticism. 

This “second Hellenization” which took root in ancient “Brutium” between the Early and High Middle Ages, acted as a link (trait d’union) and fertile ground for encounter between the ancient Mediterranean and medieval Europe. This widespread and enduring phenomenon had its main phases between the 8th and 11th centuries.

The 8th century was characterized by many important historical events that influenced the development of Italo-Greek culture. Reggio became the episcopal seat of Byzantine Calabria after Emperor Leo III transferred the dioceses of the Thema of Sicily in 732-733. In 753, the Lombards conquered Byzantine territories, excluding this part of Calabria, which remained Byzantine. While the arrival of the Lombards took away a significant portion of Byzantine domains on the peninsula, it also consolidated the influence and attention of Constantinople on the Italian provinces remaining under its control (Calabria, Puglia, and Sicily), which were “Byzantinized” in terms of administration, culture, and religious practices with the creation of the Thema.

During the same period, following a previous influx of Monothelite monks fleeing from the eastern provinces of the Empire to escape Arab and Persian invasions, there was a second and intense wave of Greek people arriving in Calabria. This time, they came from Constantinople and Greece, consisting of people fleeing from the iconoclastic oppression of Byzantine emperors. This phenomenon reached such vast proportions that Calabria underwent a process of orientalization in all forms of religious and even secular life (rituals, cults, liturgy, civil and ecclesiastical organization, language, artistic, architectural, and literary experiences). In this context, the land became the birthplace of Calabro-Greek or Italo-Greek monasticism, initially hermitic and cave-based, later materialized in the remarkable proliferation of churches and monasteries founded by Eastern monks who preserved and transmitted the Greek and Hellenistic tradition.

The rootedness of Italo-Greek culture was such that even after the 11th century, with the Norman conquest between 1059 and 1061 and the beginning of a progressive “Latinization” of southern Italy, the “Byzantine character” was not affected in the Ionian Calabria. On the contrary, the revolution in life and culture endured beyond the duration of Byzantine power and persisted throughout the centuries, leaving profound marks on the territory in its material heritage as well as in customs and habits. This part of Calabria, initially Catholic but later Orthodox, remained so until 1480 when the Greek rite was abolished, only to be reinstated in some dioceses in the late 20th century.

Therefore, the nomination proposal focuses on the main material testimonies produced between the 8th and 11th centuries, concentrated on the Ionian side of the Calabria region. Together, these testimonies embody the essence of Italo-Greek culture, resulting from the integration of Byzantine, Hellenistic, and Middle Eastern influences. This heritage is considered one of the fundamental foundations of the European world and the affirmation of Western Christianity with an Orthodox matrix. This cultural synthesis in the artistic field is characterized by stylistic and expressive richness, manifested in various religious and secular functions present in the components considered to form the serial site, as they are the most representative and well-preserved testimonies.

1) City of Gerace

The City of Gerace is the most representative and well-preserved example of an urban layout belonging to the Byzantine world in the West. It is one of the very few ancient cities in Calabria that has maintained its original urban fabric.

Founded around the 8th century AD, following the relocation uphill of the community fleeing from the declining Locri, in search of a site better protected from raids and the unhealthiness of the coast, it was baptized with the name Αγία Κυριακή (Aghia Kiriaki), Saint Ciriaca. The site, which was inhabited since the Neolithic period and also during the development of the Magna Graecia city of Locri and the Roman Imperial age, became a fortified Byzantine kastron in the Late Antique and Early Medieval period. The curia episcopalis also settled there, which over the centuries played a significant role in the life of the city.

As the capital of a Tourma in the Byzantine Empire, within the Thèma of Calabria, between the 10th and 11th centuries, Gerace housed civic institutions befitting an important political and administrative center of imperial power. This illustrates the strategic political-military function held by Gerace in the imperial possessions in Southern Italy, as well as the symbolic-religious importance assumed by the Geracese community within the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Impregnated with Greek-Oriental spirituality, culture, and customs, alongside a parallel and reinforcing process of civil “Byzantinization” of the fortified settlement, Santa Ciriaca - Gerace presents an extraordinary concentration of Greek Orthodox churches. The city's urban structure reflects this organization, being divided into three nuclei: the Borgo Maggiore, the actual city itself, and the large castle esplanade, with the three squares positioned along the decumanus line where the three powers reside: the civil power with the curia civilis, the ecclesiastical power with the curia episcopalis, and the military power at the top with the castle defending the entire city. The castle was built during the Norman period on a sector of the Byzantine Kastron (8th-10th centuries) and was expanded during the Angevin (14th century), Aragonese (15th century), and Viceregal (16th century) periods. The Cathedral, located at the intersection of the cardo and decumanus, becomes the beating heart of the entire diocese. Built on the remains of a pre-existing Byzantine structure but with a Latin cross plan, it is the most representative example and the largest place of worship in Romanesque style. The fusion of different cultures gives us a legacy that is not only artistic but also geographical, ethnic, and cultural, perfectly preserved, where successive cultural layers have produced a harmonious whole.

2) Baptistery of Santa Severina

The Baptistery of Santa Severina, built at the end of the 9th century, is the finest example of Byzantine style predating the 10th century. It is the only surviving Byzantine baptistery in the Italo-Greek context that remains substantially intact to this day.

It has a central plan with a main cylindrical body surmounted by an octagonal drum, topped with a blind lantern. A closed wing to the southwest and a shorter one to the southeast suggest an original Greek cross plan. A circle of eight columns supports a fluted dome enclosed within the drum, which is also octagonal. The columns are connected to the outer wall by monolithic brackets. Fragments of frescoes are still visible on the exterior walls.

3) Oratory of San Marco in Rossano

Built between the 9th and 10th centuries, the Oratory of San Marco represents one of the finest examples of Byzantine sacred architecture predating the year 1000. It embodies austerity and dignified simplicity in its architectural design. It stands on a limestone outcrop located in the southeastern sector of the current historic center of Rossano, the birthplace of Saint Nilus. Originally dedicated to St. Anastasia, it was likely the church of a female monastic complex. The Church of San Marco was established as a Byzantine oratory dedicated to the communal asceticism of the hermit monks who lived in the underlying tufo caves. The small oratory was used for communal prayers, meditation, choral singing, and, above all, the reading of sacred texts.

Constructed with humble materials and featuring a simple layout, it faces the Byzantine-Greek east with its apses. The plan of the building, typically Eastern, is in the shape of a Greek cross inscribed in a square. The square, completed at the east end by three semicircular apses, is crowned by five small domes with cylindrical drums. Each of the small apses features a bifora window supported by small columns topped with cushion capitals. Inside the church, masonry pillars plastered to support the dome can be found.

4) Catholic of Stilo

The Catholic of Stilo, built between the 10th and 11th centuries, is an exceptional example of a church building characteristic of “mature Byzantine architecture”. It is an authentic symbol of spirituality, particularly due to its integration into the landscape, of which it becomes a part and which it creates and influences. Stilo, at the time of its construction, was the main Byzantine center in the region and a magnet for hermits and Basilian monks who sought refuge in its caves, creating an immensely important rock settlement in the area. This is the context of the Cattolica monastery, a tiny structure made of red bricks nestled in the mountainside. The exterior of the Cattolica is characterized by the chromatic and decorative effect of the brickwork and a composition of small volumes and forms that create a measured spatiality, expressing the new mysticism and the search for a new intimacy between man and God. The church has a Greek cross plan inscribed within a square, with three apses symmetrically arranged around a central dome. The vaults are supported by columns plundered from ancient Magna Graecia buildings, resting on bases formed by inverted capitals. The interior space is divided into nine equal compartments, without privileging the central area. The facade features a small triapsidal cube made of bricks, topped by five small domes enclosed in cylindrical drums with brick covering. The arrangement of the building follows the quincunx pattern, in which architectural elements are arranged in the same way as the number five on a die. The exterior decoration in brickwork is very delicate.

5) Sacred Orthodox Monatery of S. Giovanni Theristìs in Bivongi

San Giovanni Theristis in Bivongi, originated in the 11th century as the first monastery in Italy to be founded by monks from Mount Athos, represents the latest Italo-Greek monument of the Byzantine era and is the clearest architectural testimony of the transition to the Latin era.

The Church of San Giovanni Theristis and the attached monastic buildings dominate a narrow ridge that separates the Assi and Stilaro rivers in the municipality of Bivongi. It takes its name from the monk known as Giovanni Teresti (which means “reaper”) who fled from the Islamic persecutions in Sicily in the 10th-11th centuries.

The “basilica” appears as a Byzantine church, but with Norman dimensions. It has a long and narrow nave preceded by a square atrium. Inside the church, an ogival triumphal arch connects the nave to the tripartite presbytery. The side aisles, covered with cross vaults, communicate with the nave through rounded arches, while an exceptionally tall dome rises above the nave, characterizing the exterior of the church.

The monastery, considered during the Middle Ages as the “caput monasterium S. Basili in Calabria”, was abandoned in the first half of the 17th century when the monks, due to continuous attacks by criminals, moved to Stilo. The basilica, furnished according to the liturgical needs of the Orthodox Church, has been used since 1994 by monks who came from Mount Athos in Greece. Today, the monastery is home to a community of Orthodox monks belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy. They specialize, among other things, in the production of liturgical candles.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

The nomination proposal for the serial site “Testimonies of Italo-Greek Culture between the Early and High Middle Ages” is an invaluable repository of architecture and art, expressing the roots and development of Greek culture and religion in Italy. Its classical origins and the experience of Byzantine domination make it a gateway to the continuation of Greek-Orthodox civilization in Italy and Europe.

Criterion (ii): The site “Testimonies of Italo-Greek Culture between the Early and High Middle Ages” represents, as a whole, an exceptional manifestation of multicultural exchange, a perfect synthesis between the Byzantine world and the "Italian" world it is integrated into. It serves as a model of cultural integration and tolerance, of great exemplary value even today. The integration of Greco-Byzantine culture in the Western Mediterranean, which played a crucial role during the transition between the Early and High Middle Ages, served as a bridge and fertile ground for interaction between the ancient Mediterranean and medieval Europe. This phenomenon was so deep and persistent that it withstood successive dominations, ensuring the continuation of Greco-Orthodox civilization in Italy and Europe, first as a center for the dissemination of the culture of the Byzantine Empire and later as a guardian of a cultural heritage, also known as Italo-Greek, that still endures today and is embodied by the multiple and significant material evidence that constitutes the series.

Criterion (iii): The site “Testimonies of Italo-Greek Culture between the Early and High Middle Ages” brings together the main material testimonies produced, in particular, between the 8th and 11th centuries, which collectively embody the essence of Italo-Greek culture resulting from the integration of influences from Byzantine, Hellenistic, and Middle Eastern values. This cultural tradition, although vanished, still lives on in a heritage that is considered one of the fundamental pillars of the European world and the affirmation of Western Christianity with an Orthodox matrix. This cultural synthesis in the artistic field is characterized by a wealth of styles and expressive forms, expressed in various urban and rural, religious and civil expressions, through an architecture that is perfectly recognizable and imbued with spirituality and intimacy.

Criterion (vi): The site “Testimonies of Italo-Greek Culture between the Early and High Middle Ages” has a direct and tangible connection to ancient traditions, customs, and practices that are still alive within the local community. The Byzantine-Oriental heritage endures in both the spiritual dimension and the cultural and everyday aspects of life. Local customs and daily practices continue to demonstrate a lasting Hellenic influence. The fusion and perpetuation of these cultural traits in the candidate sites can be seen in textile and ceramic crafts, as well as other traditional trades passed down through generations based on ancient practices and knowledge. They are also present in onomastics, in certain expressions still used in the dialect and local language, as well as in artisanal and religious practices, including the practice of Orthodox rituals in some churches within the site. The combination of these traditions represents a perfectly preserved example of the evolution of Italo-Greek culture throughout the centuries.

Statements of authenticity and/or integrity

The first written sources on Italo-Greek culture in Calabria date back to the 10th and 11th centuries, consisting of rich hagiographies of saints who lived and worked in Calabria, usually as founders of monasteries. The authenticity of this cultural tradition is supported by a multitude of historical and documentary sources, including an 11th-century chronicle in which an anonymous Byzantine author in the Opuscolum contra Francos recognized its specificity, distinguishing the inhabitants of the region from the rest of Western Christianity and associating them with the faithful of the East with an apostolic and Orthodox tradition.

In more recent times, many internationally renowned scholars have delved into the subject. One of the most notable was the French philologist and archaeologist François Lenormant, who dedicated part of his work in the second half of the 19th century to analyzing the Greek influence in the Calabria region, studying the imprint of Greek colonization, the interaction with the Byzantine world, and the importance of Greek tradition in Calabrian culture and society. Archaeologist Bertaux, in addition to the Cattolica di Stilo, which he considered an authentic Byzantine church transplanted in Italy, conducted various studies and research on Byzantine monuments in the region during the 20th century.

Other scholars and historians have addressed the influence of Greek culture in Calabria, including Luigi Viola, Paolo Orsi, Gerhard Rohlfs, and Umberto Zanotti Bianco. Their works have contributed to outlining and understanding the Italo-Greek heritage, fostering a deep knowledge of the architecture, art, and history of the Byzantine period in the region. Among the most recent sources, we must mention the work of Vera von Falkenhausen, one of the leading authorities in the field of Byzantine studies on Southern Italy, dedicated to exploring the material evidence of Italo-Greek culture, particularly focusing on the city of Gerace and the Cattolica di Stilo.

From a material and formal authenticity standpoint, the selected components that make up the site are in a good state of preservation. This applies to the urban layout of Gerace as well as its buildings, as well as to the other components of the series. The mostly original and intact architectural and decorative elements of these monuments, with their authentic architectural designs and ancient structures, make them important vestiges, despite changes resulting from different cultural needs and the evolution of artistic canons in subsequent epochs, often coinciding with repair work carried out after catastrophic events.

All components of the site are legally protected by national legislation (Legislative Decree 42/2004 “Code for Cultural Heritage and Landscape”), as well as municipal and regional regulations (urban planning provisions), and are managed to ensure their preservation.

In terms of "spirit and feeling", the Byzantine-Oriental heritage endures and is present in these places, both in the spiritual dimension and in the cultural and everyday aspects of life, including local customs, daily practices, linguistic expressions, and the Orthodox ritual, which is still practiced in certain locations.

Comparison with other similar properties

The site "Le testimonianze della cultura Italo-Greca tra Alto e Basso Medioevo" excellently exemplifies the theme of synthesis between different cultures. This theme, crucial to European history, is particularly significant for the phenomena that characterized the medieval period, characterized by the movement and fluctuating fortunes of different peoples of different origins and cultural backgrounds. Italy, in particular, as a crossroads of peoples, has been a privileged stage for this phenomenon, characterizing the transition and evolution from the classical world of the Roman Empire to the modern age.

The World Heritage List includes some Italian sites registered under criterion (ii). Each, with its own peculiarities, contributes to representing this tumultuous and culturally rich phase of human history, "showing an important exchange of human values".  In particular:

• The Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna, registered as a "testimony to the artistic and religious relations and contacts of an important period in the history of European culture", includes evidence from the 5th to 6th centuries.
• The Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568-774 A.D.), "are an exceptional testimony to the cultural and artistic synthesis that took place in Italy from the 6th to the 8th century, merging Roman tradition, Christian spirituality, Byzantine influences, and values borrowed from the Germanic world".
• The Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale "bear testimony to a particular political and cultural condition, characterized by the fruitful coexistence of peoples of different origins (Muslim, Byzantine, Latin, Jewish, Lombard, and French" during the Norman period in Sicily (1130-1194).

In comparison to these sites, the proposed site "EVIDENCE OF ITALO-GREEK CULTURE BETWEEN THE EARLY AND LATE MIDDLE AGES" is composed of material evidence from the period between the 8th and 11th centuries, representing a bridge and fertile ground for encounters between the ancient Mediterranean and medieval Europe. Unlike the other sites, here the theme of cultural exchange is described through material evidence related to the crucial transition between the Early and High Middle Ages. It fills a temporal gap, representing a crucial and particularly significant period of transition and completing the representation of the complex phenomenon that characterized the entire Middle Ages, laying the foundations of modern European culture.

Two of the aforementioned sites, including the proposed site, are also registered under criterion (iii) as a "unique or exceptional testimony to a living or disappeared cultural tradition or civilization". In particular:

• The Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna "bear witness to great artistic mastery, encompassing an exceptional fusion of Greco-Roman influences, Christian iconography, and stylistic traits from both the East and the West, characterizing the culture of the late Roman Empire".
• The Longobards in Italy site express "new and extraordinary artistic and monumental forms that testify to the specificity of Lombard culture within the context of the Early Medieval Europe".

The proposed site, as mentioned before, consists of a complex of exemplary evidence from the transition between the Early and High Middle Ages, surpassing and evolving the characteristics of late ancient or early medieval culture that are central to the other mentioned sites.

Stylistically, in the case of Ravenna, there is a fusion of Greco-Roman influences, Christian iconography, and stylistic traits from both the East and the West, particularly evident in the mosaic decorations. In contrast, in the proposed site, the Greco-Byzantine character assumes predominant importance, significantly shaping the urban planning and architecture, forming the settlement pattern.

Similarly, in the cases of Palermo and the Longobards, albeit in different periods, the Byzantine influences are "influences" that do not constitute the main expressive and cultural matrix. In the proposed site, the Oriental character is fundamental and materializes in an architectural model that lacks the monumental representation of imperial power but instead focuses on small, highly spiritual and intimate spaces typical of Basilian monastic architecture.

Outside of Italy, there are other sites on the World Heritage List that express values of multiculturalism. Among them:

• The Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route in Bethlehem is closely tied to a specific historical-political context, isolated in time and confined to the space of a single building. It differs from the proposed site in terms of the main inscription criterion (iv) and, above all, the intrinsic specificities in chronological and cultural terms (4th-6th century; the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity).
• The Mudejar Architecture of Aragon also refers to a different time and cultural matrix compared to the proposed site, addressing a phenomenon that developed in Spain between the 12th and 15th centuries due to specific socio-cultural conditions that favored dialogue between Christian and Islamic cultures in the context of peaceful coexistence.
• Mount Athos, the largest Orthodox spiritual center since 1054, is inscribed under various criteria, including (ii), which states that it "has exerted a lasting influence on the Orthodox world, of which it is the spiritual center, on the development of religious architecture and monumental painting". It is an architectural complex set in an exceptional natural context that, due to its era, role, and monumentality, differs greatly from the proposed site.

Regarding sites in the Tentative List, a comparison can be made with the series "The Cultural Landscape of Benedictine Settlements in Medieval Italy". This proposal focuses on Benedictine monasticism as a phenomenon of universal scope and the influence it exerted on the Euro-Mediterranean historical and cultural context.

Criterion (ii) mentions the "relationship between spirituality and work - at the heart of the Benedictine experience - embodied in the chosen architectures and their relationship with the environment, making a significant contribution to the development of architecture and the landscape". Similarly, the proposed site includes many locations associated with monasticism, although connected to the different Italo-Greek cultural matrix. In terms of architecture and settlement, it manifests a more intimate dimension, marking the transition between monasticism and the development of Benedictine settlements.

Regarding comparison with similar properties not included in the World Heritage List or Tentative List, it is known that the Italo-Greek phenomenon also characterized other regions of southern Italy beyond the Ionian Calabria. However, in this territory, due to its particular relevance and pervasiveness and the historical events that have allowed the preservation of many of its material expressions, the most significant, intact, and authentic architectural and urbanistic evidence concentrates. In southern Puglia, there were important expressions of the long domination of the Byzantine Empire in the Salento area. With the arrival of the Normans in the 11th century, Romanesque art superimposed on this heritage, while from the late 16th century, many medieval testimonies made way for the construction of Baroque-style religious buildings in the new religious spirit of the Counter-Reformation.

Furthermore, near Rome, the Exarchic Monastery of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata, also known as the Greek Abbey of San Nilo, preserves the Byzantine-Greek rite and the Eastern monastic tradition of its origins. It is one of the last of the numerous Byzantine monasteries that were widespread throughout southern Italy and even Rome during the Middle Ages. Founded in 1004 by a group of Greek monks from Byzantine southern Italy, led by St. Nilus of Rossano, it stands as tangible and one of the most significant testimonies to the influence of the Italo-Greek cultural climate of Calabria.