I PARCHI LETTERARI® IN CALABRIA “JOURNEYS TO THE FUTURE OF MEMORY” - PRESENTATION

The project “Discovery Magna Grecia”, also known as “Discovering Magna Grecia”, financed by the European Community through the Interreg IIIB “Archimed” Programme, is promoted by the Project Leader, The Region of Calabria and its Italian and Greek partners: The Regional Province of Agrigento, The Regional Province of Cosenza, The Region of East Macedonia and Thrace and the Prefecture of Rethymno.

The main elements and objectives include the creation of a network of local and trans-national Parchi Letterari® for the development of activities involving sustainable tourism. It is intended to be a sort of “cultural district” that is able to propose the most authentic values of the territory to visitors, starting with the most ancient origins, those precious roots of Magna Grecia, up to the present day, through that phenomenal interpretative code that is literature.

Calabria was the cradle of Magna Graecia and throughout the centuries has served as a meeting point and place for confrontation among different cultures and identities.

Here, literature is used as the code for interpreting a memory that today as never before is not only a reason for pride, but also an opportunity for economic development from deep and dignified roots. Indeed, these are “Journeys to the Future of Memory”.

The publication that we are presenting here is only one of the tools that I Parchi Letterari® project makes use of to capture the attention of modern travellers in order to renew their desire to live out the pleasurable elements and sensations that the territory of the Region of Calabria offers.

Calabria, as a bridge between the Italic peninsula and Sicily, offered space to populations and refuge for a variety of illustrious men, throughout a number of eras, who are associated with a range of diverse histories. However, there has been special attention to some especially intelligent discoveries, across a spectrum of authoritative disciplines. The features of the marine landscape with its steep elevations along the interior spurs that are rich with forests and precipices, offers some peculiar elements that cannot be easily found elsewhere. In other words, it seems that nature offers joyous yet contrasting reasons for welcoming people who have been dedicated to the execution of highest forms of research (philosophical, spiritual and social), which among the fascinating panoramas that were naturalistically consolidated in prehistoric eras and without excessive variation, have found an appropriate environment for their investigations, despite the passage of invading armies and adventurers, which were directed more towards the tyranny of the empire than to local civilisations.

Calabria’s nature has collectively defended itself against the most imposing ventures of violent invaders by hosting a variety of ingenious men, along with schools, hermitages and retreats.
It is for this reason that here, also with regard to the humanistic developments, we find a joyous land for the formation of some of I Parchi Letterai®. In Calabria, a variety of places stand out, which have been chosen as the most exemplary representations of Mediterranean genius. We turn our attention to these places.

However, we do not expect to recount all that is contained in this precious treasure chest here, but to begin to access it with a key that shall allow us to discover the emotions that are inspired by these places. And in order for this to occur, as always happens with I Parchi Letterari® the traveller will be guided by the pages of literature created by those writers who have taken inspiration from the places they have visited.
Images, literature and stories that introduce us to the emotions experienced throughout the centuries by cultured men, writers and travellers in some important places in the territory of Calabria.

Vincenzo Falcone – Director of the Autonomous Affairs Organisational Unit for the Presidency of the Regional Executive Committee”