Calabria · Cosenza
Corigliano-Rossano
The Sibari plain city merged in 2018 from two older towns, one built around a Norman castle and the other around a Byzantine manuscript tradition.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Corigliano-Rossano is on our list
It holds Bandiera Blu, Città dell'Olio and Città dei Liquori.
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 2 h 52 min from Salerno
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 74,332
- J13°
- F15°
- M15°
- A18°
- M24°
- J30°
- J34°
- A33°
- S28°
- O23°
- N18°
- D15°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 28° and coldest in February at 15°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Corigliano-Rossano is the largest commune on Calabria's Ionian side, seventy-four thousand people spread across the Sibari plain between the Sila slopes and the sea. It did not exist as a single place until 31 March 2018, when Corigliano Calabro and Rossano were merged by law. The two halves keep their separate characters rather than blending into one: Corigliano sits inland on its ridge, built up around the castle and its citrus groves, while Rossano lies twenty kilometers east and older in feel, its identity tied to the Byzantine church tradition and the manuscript culture that produced the Codex.
Between and around both, the coastline runs its beaches north toward the Pollino headland, and the abbey sits above town on its own ridge, a separate Italo-Greek foundation from the monastic world that also shaped Rossano. The liquorice business belongs to neither historic center exactly. It works its own estate on the plain, a commercial thread running underneath the two civic and religious identities that the merger joined on paper. What the 2018 union really did was formalize a geography that had long placed a castle town, a manuscript town, and a plain of root and citrus and coastline within a few kilometers of each other, without ever requiring them to be the same place.
How to get there
From Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 2 h 6 min by car.
Bari (BRI) is about 3 h 4 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 2 h 52 min, Bari 2 h 58 min or Naples 3 h 36 min.
There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Castello Ducale di Corigliano
The fortress Robert Guiscard commissioned took six centuries to become the ducal residence standing today, its rooms and terraces layered over that long remodelling rather than fixed to one moment.
Museo Diocesano e Codex Purpureus Rossanensis
The gospel is kept in a diocesan museum built around it, the parchment's purple dye and gold lettering still legible under glass as one of the oldest surviving illuminated New Testament manuscripts.
Museo della Liquirizia Amarelli
The museum sits inside the working estate itself, walking visitors through the processing of the root rather than just displaying it, family ledgers and old machinery included.
Abbazia di Santa Maria del Patire
Eleventh-century Italo-Greek monastery on a Sila ridge above Rossano, with a Cosmatesque mosaic floor and Byzantine wall remains.
Lungomare di Schiavonea
Bandiera Blu coastline along the Sibari plain, sand and pebble beaches stretching toward the Pollino headland in the north.
Living here
Could you live here?
Corigliano-Rossano is a city.
- A city of 74,332 people: the services are here, not a drive away.
- A station of its own, so the rest of Italy is a train ride away.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 74,332, down 2.2% since 2015
- Train station in the comune
- A national health service hospital in the comune · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €485 to €1,200 per m² to buy, €1.70 to €4.60 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- A local hub
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 62% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Crotone airport (CRV), 1 h 53 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 2 h 21 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
9% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and Bulgaria, against 9% across Italy. 64 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly Germany, the Netherlands and France. There are 150 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 35% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Cosenza province ranks 100th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
There is an emergency room in the comune. The nearest major one is in Cosenza, 44 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 322 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 162 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Calabria spends about €1,620 a month, €590 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €398 a year for water, on the Calabria average. In Cosenza, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.20 and a man's haircut €20.91.
Climate and risk
18% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 20% in a high or medium one. Under 1% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
CODEX PURPUREUS
Sixth-century Greek gospel on purple parchment, illuminated in gold, brought from Palestine in the ninth century and UNESCO-listed since 2015.
LIQUIRIZIA AMARELLI
Family liquorice business running since 1731 on the Sibari plain, where the root is recognized in scientific texts as the finest in the world.
CASTELLO DUCALE
Norman castle built 1073 by Robert Guiscard, remodelled into a ducal palace, overlooking the Sibari citrus plain and the Ionian beyond.
CLEMENTINE DI CALABRIA
The commune lies inside the Clementine di Calabria IGP production zone.
Common questions
- What is Corigliano-Rossano known for?
- Corigliano-Rossano is the Sibari plain city merged in 2018 from two older towns, one built around a Norman castle and the other around a Byzantine manuscript tradition.
- Where is Corigliano-Rossano?
- Corigliano-Rossano is a comune in the province of Cosenza, in Calabria, at 219 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Corigliano-Rossano?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Crotone (CRV), about 1 h 53 min by car.
- Can you get to Corigliano-Rossano without a car?
- Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Corigliano-Rossano?
- About 2 h 52 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Corigliano-Rossano?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 34 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Corigliano-Rossano?
- Villapiana, Biella and Acquaviva delle Fonti.
- How many people live in Corigliano-Rossano?
- 74,332 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Corigliano-Rossano a good place to live?
- Corigliano-Rossano is a city of 74,332 people, the kind of place Part 3 of our Where to Move in Italy series is about. There is a national health service hospital in the comune. Full fibre reaches 62% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 219 m
- Population: 74,332
- Surface area: 355.56 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Corigliano-Rossano appears in
Similar
Towns like Corigliano-Rossano
What all six share with Corigliano-Rossano: have a railway station in the comune
Villapiana
Province: Cosenza
both on the Ionian coast · both hill towns
Biella
Province: Biella
both over 10,000 people · both hill towns
Acquaviva delle Fonti
Province: Bari
both over 10,000 people · both hill towns
Castellaneta
Province: Taranto
both over 10,000 people · both hill towns
Policoro
Province: Matera
both on the Ionian coast · both over 10,000 people
Bernalda
Province: Matera
both on the Ionian coast · both over 10,000 people
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