Co-Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Squillace, Italy

Concattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta was built by Norman count Roger I in the 12th century. It was destroyed in the 1643 earthquake and later in other incidents. The current appearance dates from the 18th century.

Religious sites in Italy

User Reviews

emy boccagna (16 months ago)
La Madonna dormiente è il pezzo forte di questa cattedrale che comunque è meravigliosa; anche il mosaico alle spalle dell'altare è veramente meraviglioso.

Nicola “nlucchetti” Lucchetti (2 years ago)
Church well kept. Passing on Sunday I was able to attend a piece of the mass, where there is a very good choir.

lulu' elisina (2 years ago)
Beautiful, I gave the maximum 5 because it is really well maintained full of frescoes, one of the most beautiful I've seen in the area, I am attaching the photos to make you understand better

Daniele Raimondo (3 years ago)
Beautiful cathedral with an important facade and interesting portal. Very nice interior. It is located in the historic center of Squillace which is one of the most beautiful and scenic villages in the province of Catanzaro and the whole of Calabria.

hans-joerg Muhs (4 years ago)
The cathedral combines as an attractive tourist destination when visiting Squillace with the long and historically significant development of the city and region. From the square in front of the cathedral, the fantastic urban structure and the landscape, integrated architecture and dimensions, are revealed. Here, in the context of further discoveries in Squillace, history can be experienced. The interior has conveyed the spirit of religious identity and is entirely appropriate to the character of the cathedral's significance.

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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