Saracena

Saracena sits at 606 meters on the eastern slopes of the Orsomarso mountains, inside the Pollino National Park, fifty-five kilometers north of Cosenza. The town gets its name from the Saracens who conquered it around 900 AD; like Palermo and Tropea it kept a souk through the Arab-Sicilian and early Norman centuries, and the Byzantine army eventually retook it. The mother monument is the twelfth-century Chiesa di San Leone, a Byzantine foundation that still holds the patron's relics.

What carries the village now is wine: Moscato di Saracena, a passito blended from Guarnaccia, Malvasia, Odoacra and Moscatello, fermented slowly into an amber dessert wine first documented in the sixteenth century. The production sits under a Slow Food Presidium, and a Casa del Moscato opened in the former town hall in May 2026. Olives, truffles and Pollino trekking fill the rest of the calendar.