nucleo storico, di mezzacosta, collinare, difensivo, Nicastro, Neocastron (denominazione storica, età bizantina), Lissania (denominazione storica)

Nicastro is one of the two historic nuclei that constitute Lamezia Terme’s old centre, a place with a name that echoes its Byzantine origins: Neocastron, the new castle. The site occupies a defensive, hillside position at mid-slope, a classic choice for a fortified settlement. Its oldest quarter, Rione San Teodoro, grew in close relationship with the castle above, and still bears the tight, protective character of medieval incastellamento, the clustering of dwellings around a stronghold for security. The castle itself is Norman in origin, later rebuilt by the Swabians and restored by local noble families, though only ruins remain. The cathedral, dating from the seventeenth century, holds fine artworks of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; other churches include Santa Caterina delle Grotte, San Pancrazio and the Cappuccini. The toponym ‘Nicastro’ may reach back further still, to an Enotrian settlement of the sixth or fifth century BC, said to have stood in the plain of Sant’Eufemia. Nicastro was an independent comune until 1968, when it merged with Sambiase and Sant’Eufemia Lamezia to form the present-day city.

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