INTRODUCTION
Located in the golfo of Squillace, the isthmus of the catanzaro province (the narrowest land zone in italy, where there is only 35 km. distance between the jonian and tyrrhenian seas).
This park encompasses approximately 35 hectares of land, where the ruins of of the roman colony of scolacium, the byzantine necropolis and the norman basilica of santa maria della roccella, are nestle together. Also standing is the agricultural building of barone mazza -the last person to own the property- where visitors can walk through the electric crushing oil mill of the forties, an important example of that industrial archeology era.
The secular olive grove with its 3500 specimens, lends additional magic framing to the already remarkable site.
Though the discovery of scolacium is relatively new, its history is ancient: new light was shed in this territory, when scolacium resurfaced accidentally in the nineteenth century, during the excavation and construction of s106 road, parallel to the railroad network that connected taranto to reggio calabria. when numerous finds surfaced, it became clear that under the olive trees and layers of earth, could exist an enormous buried city of ancient date.
However the brakethrough came in 1960, when during a cassa del mezzogiorno dig for the acqueduct, they discovered what we now identify as the roman forum,
and subsequentally the discovery of the rest of the city that became described as a “small pompei”.
Later in 1982, the park became exclusive state property: that same year the mazza family was expropriated; they had bought said property at auction from the Massara family of Borgia, in 1892. Various important excavation campaigns over many years were fundamental for the reconstruction of the antique city of skylletion, which later became the roman colony of Scolacium.
Discoveries led to the inauguration of the museum on the site in 2005, where it is possible to dwell in a vast cumulus of historical periods, displaying selection of daily life objects, coins, architectural pieces and funerial urns, skeletal remains and marble statues, that are testimony to the greatness of this site.
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Translation by: Rinaldo Dario Paonessa
