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|
Martone | |
|---|---|
Comune | |
| Comune di Martone | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Martone  | |
  Martone Location of Martone in Italy  Martone Martone (Calabria) | |
| Coordinates: 38°21′N 16°17′E / 38.350°N 16.283°E | |
| Country | Italy |
| Region | Calabria |
| Metropolitan city | Reggio Calabria (RC) |
| Frazioni | Poligori |
| Area [1] | |
| • Total | 8 km2 (3 sq mi) |
| Population (2001)[2] | |
| • Total | 597 |
| • Density | 75/km2 (190/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Martonesi (Martunisi) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 89040 |
| Dialing code | 0964 |
| Patron saint | Saint George (Santu San Giorgi) |
| Saint day | 23 April |
| Website | Official website |
Martone (Calabrian: Màrtuni) is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, in southern Italy. Its origins date back to between the 7th and 8th centuries.
The founders were Greek monks from the Byzantine Orient who made a deep impression on the social-economic fabric of the region. The monks travelled from Cappadocia, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Egypt, and Greece proper, chased by Syrian persecution, to find refuge in Sicily and Calabria. For the monks the locality must have been the ideal ambience, being an isolated place far from worldly passions, suitable for the ascetic life of prayer, study, meditation and work.
It is likely that the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times when cave-dwellers lived there.
Martone, like all the Locride area, was part of Greek monasticism; it is known for certain that "the monks were living solitarily in grottos or in convents bound by the oath of chastity in the communal bond of prayer and work. The emaciated Christ which the Byzantine iconography was perpetuating for centuries, the suave darkish face of the Mother of God in the icons and frescos and the vast series of Saints, did make their solitude quite serene, did alleviate the heavy toils, and were reawakening the sign of the Orient in the peace of the ascetic dwellings and in the squalor of the grottos".[3]
Also in the Grotto Territory, which included the municipalities of Mammola, Martone and St. Giovanni di Gerace, there existed "small monastic churches, which though not competing in historic artefacts with those of Stilo and of the Paterion di Rossano, nevertheless they still preserve traces of Byzantine art".[4]
"These monasteries were not only intended to preserve the relicts of antiquity, as in Vico's expressions, but also a school of agriculture and trades, reforesting, land-reclaiming, cultivating, ploughing, sowing, intensifying the cultivation of olive trees, of vines and of chestnuts, building aqueducts and mills, opening the way to the first artisan activities and representing, therefore, the heralds of the protection of the rural population, in a calamitous and decentralized age which was the Byzantine".[5]
- ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- ^ All demographics and other statistics from the Italian statistical institute (Istat)
- ^ Musolino, Giovanni (1966). Calabria bizantina [Byzantine Calabria] (in Italian). Venice: F. Ongania. p. 9. OCLC 15319077.
- ^ Russo, F. (1979). Monasticism in the Locride (in Italian). Rome. p. 34.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Barillaro, Emilio (1969). Il mio bel San Giovanni (in Italian). S.Giovanni di Gerace: Ed. Nossis. p. 23. OCLC 632992966.