Mileto, Calabria, Italy
According to tradition, the ancient city was founded by Greek fugitives from Miletus (Miletos in Greek; hence the name) in Anatolia, which had been destroyed by Darius.
However, the history of Mileto is inextricably linked to the Norman conquest of southern Italy. Already the seat of a fortified Byzantine town, Mileto was granted by Robert Guiscard to his brother Roger I (1058), who made it the center of the Norman county of Calabria. Mileto was the first Latin diocese in southern Italy. In Mileto Ruggero founded the abbey of the SS. Trinità, one of the largest and most important monasteries of the Italian Middle Ages.
The archaeological park, which includes the monumental remains of ancient Miletus, is located a few kilometers away from the current city, and represents the first example of a medieval park in Calabria.
The site of the ancient city was abandoned in 1783 following the well-known earthquake that devastated all of Calabria. Inside the park there are the monumental remains of ancient Mileto, such as the foundation levels of the Abbey of the SS Trinità and the city walls.
Housed inside the bishop's palace, the National Museum, however, houses a precious collection of ancient and medieval marbles, ceramics, sacred furnishings and paintings that tell the story of the ancient city of Miletus destroyed in 1783
Photos by @iresole
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