Aspromonte Park
Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Access
The Aspromonte National Park can be reached principally via the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, with the Bagnara Calabra exit, from which the SS112 road continues in the direction of Sant'Eufemia d'Aspromonte and Gambarie, a mountain tourist centre and headquarters of the park authority; from Reggio Calabria, Gambarie can be reached via the SS184 road, exiting at Gallico. For the Ionian side and access from the eastern municipalities of the park, the reference point is the state road Jonica (Reggio Calabria-Taranto), from which it is possible to go up towards the interior via the state and provincial roads that go up the torrents towards the municipalities in the park. Four visitor centres constitute the main entrances to the park: Zomaro di Cittanova (Tyrrhenian side), Bagaladi (northern Ionic side), Delianuova and Mammola. The nearest railway stations are Reggio Calabria Centrale and Villa San Giovanni, both on the Trenitalia (TI) Tyrrhenian line; from the Reggio Calabria station, the ATAM urban bus network serves the municipal territory. Reggio Calabria Strait Airport is closest to the heart of the park; Lamezia Terme International Airport offers more air connections and can be reached from the motorway. The Park Authority headquarters is located in Gambarie di Santo Stefano in Aspromonte (RC), Via Aurora 1.
.Introduction
The Aspromonte National Park extends to the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula, in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria, occupying the entire Aspromonte massif between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, the Strait of Messina to the south and the Ionian Sea to the east. Established by Law No. 305 of 28 August 1989 and regulated by the Presidential Decree of 14 January 1994, the park covers an area of 641.53 km² and is the largest protected area in southern Calabria, covering thirty-seven municipalities in the province of Reggio Calabria. On 22 April 2021, the park was awarded UNESCO World Geopark status, in recognition of the exceptional geological heritage of the massif. The territory is an acrocorus of granitic-crystalline origin that rises rapidly from sea level up to the 1,956 m of Mount Montalto, with a gradient of gradient that is one of the most pronounced in the Apennines, and that preserves, in the Valle Infernale ancient beech forests, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.
Description
The Aspromonte massif is the southernmost offshoot of the Calabrian Apennines and belongs to the geological unit known as the Calabrian-Peloritanian Arc, a crustal block of crystalline origin that separated from Europe and travelled across the Mediterranean to join the tip of the boot over millions of years of tectonic drift. The basal geological complex, which originated between the Precambrian and Palaeozoic periods, is predominantly composed of igneous (granite, granite porphyry) and metamorphic (gneiss, schist) rocks, with structural characteristics more akin to the Alps than the Apennines. Around this crystalline core are bands of sedimentary rocks of more recent age. The northern limit of the park is located at the Limina Pass, where the massif separates geologically from the Calabrian Serre along the Palmi-Antonimina tectonic line. The geomorphology is dominated by the fiumare, torrential watercourses flowing over wide stony riverbeds: rapid and impetuous in winter when it rains, completely dry in summer. The Amendolea, Bonamico, La Verde and Mileto rivers are the best known; along the Bonamico torrent, a large landslide in 1973 blocked the watercourse, forming Lake Costantino. Lake Menta, an artificial reservoir at 1,400m in the territory of Roccaforte del Greco, is the park's other main body of water. The Amendolea (or Maesano), Forgiarelle, Mundu and Galasìa waterfalls are among the highest and most visited in the park. Among the geosites of greatest international interest - the subject of UNESCO Geopark recognition - is the Valle delle Grandi Pietre with Pietra Cappa, one of the largest monoliths in Europe, and the Gambarie marine terraces.
The park's flora numbers around 1,500 plant species, with a richness linked to its central geographical position in the Mediterranean, the simultaneous proximity of two seas and the high altitudinal gradient. Along the coastal strip and up to about 600 m, xerophilous Mediterranean scrub dominates, with mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), myrtle (Myrtus communis), strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), tree spurge (Euphorbia dendroides), tree heath and phillyrea; Riparian vegetation with black alder (Alnus glutinosa), black poplar (Populus nigra), willows and oleander (Nerium oleander) is established along the rivers. From 600m upwards, deciduous forests extend: on the Tyrrhenian side with chestnut trees up to 1,000m, on the Ionian side with downy oaks, durmasts and turkey oaks. Between 800m and 1,700m, the Calabrian larch pine (Pinus nigra subsp. laricio) forms natural pine forests of considerable extension, present above all on the Ionian slope with large individuals such as the Acatti Giants. From 1,200 m up to the summit altitudes there is a beech forest (Fagus sylvatica), often mixed with silver fir (Abies alba), with unique characteristics of adaptation to the Mediterranean climate that have made it the subject of international scientific studies. The Valle Infernale ancient beech forest, on the Ionian slope of Montalto in the municipalities of Samo and San Luca, has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Beech Primordial Forests serial site on 28 July 2021. Among the botanical rarities of exceptional interest the Woodwardia radicans, an arboreal fern of tropical and tertiary origin whose fronds can reach 3m, present in the humid valleys of the Tyrrhenian slope; the Digitalis purpurea, a very poisonous plant with large red flowers, whose presence in Aspromonte constitutes the only peninsular station in Italy (present elsewhere only in Sardinia and Corsica); the Quercus petraea subsp. austrotyrrhenica, a postglacial relict southern oak; the Osmunda regalis at Piano dello Zillastro.
The fauna is rich and varied. Among the mammals, the Apennine wolf (Canis lupus italicus) is present in the central-eastern part of the massif after having disappeared for two decades; the wild cat (Felis silvestris), the marten (Martes martes), the badger (Meles meles), the otter (Lutra lutra) in the river valleys, the dormouse (Glis glis), the polecat and the wild boar complete the picture of mammals. The driomio (Dryomys nitedula), a rodent similar to the dormouse, is only found in Italy on Aspromonte and the Eastern Alps. The southern black squirrel (Sciurus meridionalis) is an endemic subspecies of southern Italy with black fur, distinct from northern populations. Birds of prey include the Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata), a very rare species in Italy, of which Aspromonte is home to one of the few nesting sites on the peninsular, along with the eagle owl (Bubo bubo), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and buzzard. The Parnassius apollo, a high-altitude lepidopteran related to the grasslands with species of the genus Sedum, is present in the open summit areas.
The Aspromonte territory is one of the most stratified in the peninsula from a historical-cultural point of view. The earliest human traces date back to the Neolithic period; the Greek colonisation of Magna Graecia left a deep mark documented by the remains of two 4th-6th century BC fortresses in Oppido Mamertina and Sant'Eufemia d'Aspromonte. The Greek heritage is still alive in the Grecanica Area - the area of the municipalities of Bova, Roghudi, Condofuri and Gallicianò - where a few dozen people still speak the Greek of Calabria, an idiom classified as a dialect of ancient Greek, and there are Orthodox churches and rituals in the Basilian tradition. The Sanctuary of San Nicodemo at Mammola, dating back to the 10th century and still inhabited by a monk, and the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Montagna at Polsi are the park's main devotional sites. The abandoned villages of Roghudi Vecchio, Amendolea and Precacore, perched on rocky ridges or lying on the torrents of the rivers, bear witness to the abandonment of the mountainous hinterland during the 20th century. Gambarie, at 1,310m at the foot of Monte Scirocco, is the main tourist centre of the park, with hotel facilities, ski slopes and ski lifts from which one can see the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas at the same time, and Mount Etna and the Aeolian Islands on clear days.
The network of trails includes historical routes such as the Sentiero dei Greci and the Sentiero del Brigante - connecting Gambarie to Serra San Bruno or Stilo - and dozens of themed itineraries on torrents, waterfalls, geosites and villages. The Network of Park Museums coordinates the visitor centres of Bagaladi, Bova, Gerace and Mammola in an integrated system to enhance the natural, historical and cultural heritage.
Information
General Data
Typology: National Park; UNESCO World Geopark (from 22 April 2021); UNESCO World Heritage Site - Valle Infernale Vetuste Faggete (28 July 2021)
Year of Establishment: 1989 (Law 28 August 1989, n. 305); park authority established by D.P.R. 14 January 1994; new perimeter D.P.R. 10 July 2008; UNESCO Geopark recognition: 2021; UNESCO Beechwood Heritage: 2021
Managing body: Ente Parco Nazionale dell'Aspromonte
Reference body: Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica
Area: 641,53 km²
Minimum altitude: [to be completed - coastal strip]
Maximum altitude: 1.956m
Maximum elevation: 1,956m - Mount Montalto (also known as Cocuzza, Santo Stefano in Aspromonte / Samo / San Luca, RC)
Region(s): Calabria
Province(s): Reggio Calabria (Metropolitan City)
Municipalities involved: Africo - Antonimina - Bagaladi - Bova - Bruzzano Zeffirio - Canolo - Cardeto - Careri - Ciminà - Cinquefrondi - Cittanova - Condofuri - Cosoleto - Delianuova - Gerace - Mammola - Molochio - Oppido Mamertina - Palizzi - Platì - Reggio Calabria - Roccaforte del Greco - Roghudi - Samo - San Giorgio Morgeto - San Lorenzo - San Luca - San Roberto - Sant'Agata del Bianco - Sant'Eufemia d'Aspromonte - Santa Cristina d'Aspromonte - Santo Stefano in Aspromonte - Scido - Scilla - Sinopoli - Staiti - Varapodio
Official website: https://www.parconazionaleaspromonte.it