Calabria · Cosenza
San Benedetto Ullano
An Arbëreshë village in the hills west of Cosenza, where the Byzantine rite is still sung.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
San Benedetto Ullano is on our list.
Subscribe and you get San Benedetto Ullano's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 2 h 54 min from Salerno
- Population
- 1,361
- J11°
- F12°
- M13°
- A16°
- M21°
- J27°
- J31°
- A30°
- S26°
- O21°
- N16°
- D13°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
San Benedetto Ullano (Shën Benedhiti in Arbëreshë) sits twenty kilometers from Cosenza, on the inland slope of the Catena Costiera. It is one of the twenty-seven Arbëreshë communes of Calabria, founded by Albanian refugees who arrived between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries fleeing the Ottoman advance, and the language founded then is still spoken at home. The college that trained Greek-Albanian clergy became a center of Albanian culture in Italy and produced prominent figures of the Arbëreshë intellectual revival before it was moved in 1794 to San Demetrio Corone, taking the town's role as seat of that institution with it.
The village itself stayed a frazione of Montalto Uffugo until 1937, when it became an autonomous commune, a late administrative independence for a place whose religious and linguistic identity had been settled for centuries. The festa of Sant'Antonio in June draws Arbëreshë families back from across Italy. What remains is a village whose civic history is short and whose cultural history is long: a place that outlasted the institution that once made it notable, and kept the rite and the language after the college itself moved on.
How to get there
From Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 1 h 30 min by car.
Naples (NAP) is about 3 h 37 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 2 h 54 min, Bari 3 h 35 min or Naples 3 h 37 min.
Every town within reach of Lamezia Terme airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa di San Pietro e Paolo
Parish church where the iconostasis and frescoes still stand behind the Albanian chant sung at services.
Sede storica del Collegio Corsini
The building Pope Clement XII's college once occupied, before it moved on and left this as the surviving trace of it in the village.
Centro storico
Compact Arbëreshë center of stone houses, with the original Albanian street names and the small square in front of the church.
Riserva Naturale Valle del Crati
Protected wooded valley below the village, part of the regional reserve along the Crati river basin.
Living here
Could you live here?
San Benedetto Ullano is at the end of the road.
- A village of 1,361. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Montalto Uffugo, is 19 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Cosenza, a city of 63,240, is 41 min by car. Inside our 30 to 60 minutes: close for the services, far enough to keep its own life.
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 1,361, down 12.1% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Cosenza, 41 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Paola, 8 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €430 to €620 per m² to buy, €1.60 to €2.40 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- In-between
- Pharmacy: none mapped
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 83% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 1, Italy's highest hazard
- Lamezia Terme airport (SUF), 1 h 30 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Catanzaro, 1 h 45 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
5% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Ukraine and Morocco, against 9% across Italy. There are 230 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 41% 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
The nearest emergency room is in Paola, 8 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Cosenza, 21 km away. The nearest IB school is Gonzaga International School Palermo, 280 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is International School of Brindisi, 203 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.91% 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 0.6% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
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
5% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. 21% 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
ARBËRESHË
Albanian-rite community founded by refugees from the Ottoman conquest, still speaking Arbëreshë and celebrating the Byzantine liturgy.
COLLEGIO CORSINI
Italo-Albanian college founded here in 1723 by Pope Clement XII to train Greek-Albanian clergy and preserve Arbëreshë culture.
BYZANTINE RITE
The parish still follows the Greek-Catholic Byzantine rite, with iconostasis and Albanian liturgical chant.
Common questions
- What is San Benedetto Ullano known for?
- San Benedetto Ullano is an Arbëreshë village at 460 meters in the hills west of Cosenza, where the Byzantine rite is still sung.
- Where is San Benedetto Ullano?
- San Benedetto Ullano is a comune in the province of Cosenza, in Calabria.
- What is the nearest airport to San Benedetto Ullano?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Lamezia Terme (SUF), about 1 h 30 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to San Benedetto Ullano?
- About 2 h 54 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit San Benedetto Ullano?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 14 rain days.
- Which other towns are like San Benedetto Ullano?
- Riace, Santa Severina and Taverna.
- How many people live in San Benedetto Ullano?
- 1,361 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is San Benedetto Ullano a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, San Benedetto Ullano is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Montalto Uffugo, is 19 min away. The nearest city, Cosenza, is 41 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Paola, 8 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 83% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 460 m
- Population: 1,361
- Surface area: 19.57 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 San Benedetto Ullano appears in
Similar
Towns like San Benedetto Ullano
What all six share with San Benedetto Ullano: inland, away from the coast · under 3,000 people · hill towns
The letter
San Benedetto Ullano is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when San Benedetto Ullano comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 443 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.