Calabria · Cosenza
Altomonte
A hill town in the Esaro valley built around the highest Gothic-Angevin church in Calabria.
Known for
GOTHIC-ANGEVIN
Santa Maria della Consolazione, built 1336 by Filippo Sangineto with French craftsmen, the high point of Gothic-Angevin architecture in Calabria.
SIMONE MARTINI
Saint Ladislaus panel commissioned in Siena in 1326, kept in the Civic Museum alongside two panels of the Giotto school.
OLIO AND PANE
Città dell'Olio and Città del Pane, with extra virgin olive oil and traditional Calabrian bread from wood ovens in the centro storico.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
The festa: Francesco da Paola, 2 April
Why come
Altomonte sits in the Valle dell'Esaro, forty-five kilometers north of Cosenza, between the Pollino slopes and the Ionian plain. The village is built around the church, its stairways and alleys climbing the hillside toward the square in front of it, which gives the settlement its layout and its nickname as Calabria's wedding village. The Dominicans took over the church in 1443 and founded the convent that now houses library and museum, joining under one roof the religious life of the town and the collection that grew out of it.
Altomonte is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia, a Cittaslow, and a Città dell'Olio and del Pane. The recognitions and the produce sit alongside the medieval fabric rather than apart from it: a small hill town whose civic identity, from bread ovens to heritage listings, has grown around the same core the church and its square have held since the fourteenth century.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Altomonte’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
What to see
Chiesa di Santa Maria della Consolazione
Built on a Norman foundation of 1070, raised over it by Filippo Sangineto. French stonework distinguishes the interior, the reason the church is ranked above any other Gothic-Angevin building in the region.
Museo Civico di Altomonte
Housed in the former Dominican convent, with Simone Martini's panel of Saint Ladislaus commissioned by Filippo Sangineto in 1326 in Siena.
Castello Normanno-Aragonese
Hilltop castle of Norman origin remodelled under the Aragonese, dominating the centro storico and the Esaro valley below.
Centro storico medievale
Medieval old town of stone stairways and alleys winding around the Consolazione square, nicknamed Calabria's wedding village for its setting.
Chiesa di San Francesco di Paola
Sixteenth-century convent church on the edge of the centro storico, with cloister and frescoed refectory.
The slow-trip planner
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We recommend
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
BarbieriRistorante
Barbieri carries a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Living here
- Population 4,019
- Off the beaten pathi
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Nearest airport Lamezia / Reggio, 1 h 37 min drive
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 1 h 52 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
The numbers
- Elevation: 455 m
- Population: 4,019
- Surface area: 65.72 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Close by
More towns near Altomonte
Morano Calabro
Province: Cosenza
A conical hill of stone houses stacked under a Norman-Swabian castle at the southern gate of the Pollino, called Italy's nativity village.
Mormanno
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A Pollino mountain borgo at 840 meters between the Costa and Vernita ridges, known for lentils, white poverelli beans and the bocconotto pastry.
Villapiana
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An Ionian commune where the Sibari plain meets the first slopes rising toward Pollino.
San Benedetto Ullano
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An Arbëreshë village at 460 meters in the hills west of Cosenza, where the Byzantine rite is still sung.
Trebisacce
Province: Cosenza
A Bronze Age plateau above the Ionian Sea whose name comes from the Greek for small table, with a Byzantine mother church below.
🎨 Borghi più belli d'Italia
More Borghi più belli d'Italia towns in Calabria
Aiello Calabro
Province: Cosenza
A hilltop borgo at 502 meters in the Tyrrhenian hinterland of Cosenza, ruled for two centuries by the Cybo-Malaspina from Massa Carrara.
Aieta
Province: Cosenza
An eagle's-nest village in the western Pollino, with one of the few sixteenth-century Renaissance palazzi standing in Calabria.
Badolato
Province: Catanzaro
A medieval borgo of thirteen churches at 240 meters above the Ionian, which took in 350 Kurdish refugees in 1997 and started its own slow rebirth.
Bova
Province: Reggio di Calabria
The capital of the Bovesìa, a 416-resident Aspromonte hilltop borgo at 820m and the cultural centre of the Grecanic minority, where the Calabrian-Greek dialect descended from Byzantine-era Greek is still spoken by elders.
Caccuri
Province: Crotone
A 646-meter Presila borgo dominated by a sixth-century Byzantine castle with a cylindrical tower built in 1882, birthplace of Renaissance statesman Cicco Simonetta.