centro storico, di crinale, collinare, San Demetrio Corone, Situ Sancti Dimitri (denominazione storica, cit. 1471), San Demetrio (denominazione storica, cit. 1759, ante 1863)

On a Calabrian hilltop, San Demetrio Corone is a medieval borgo with a long, layered history. Its historic name, Situ Sancti Dimitri, appears in a 1471 citation, though the site’s story reaches back further. The most striking monument is the basiliano-Normanna church of Sant’Adriano, built between the 10th and 12th centuries, attached to an Italo-Albanian college. Archaeological evidence suggests Roman villas of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD once stood in the localities of Casale Fontegrotte, Ogliastretto, and Sant’Agata. The church’s first phase dates to the 8th, 9th centuries, but it and its monastery were destroyed by Saracen raids in the 10th century. Under the Normans, monastic life revived; the basiliano monastery was briefly given to the Benedictine abbey of Cava de’ Tirreni in 1088, then regained independence in 1106. By 1115, after a donation from Duke Drogone di Montalto, the abbey became an archimandrite seat. In the 14th century, it held civil jurisdiction over the surrounding hamlets, modest rural clusters of Calabrian farmers and artisans, pre-dating the Albanian arrivals.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.