Tauriana

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Tauriana, also known as Taureana or Taurianum (Greek: Ταυρανία), was an ancient city near present-day Palmi in Calabria, Italy. It lay about 1 km south of the Metauros river on the Tyrrhenian coast and formed a border between Rhegion and Locri.

Origins and history are debated. Some legends say Achaean Greeks founded the area; others think the city began in the late 4th century BC when groups from Reggio and Locri settled there and conquered nearby towns. In the Hellenistic era the Taurians, an Italic people from Rhegion, controlled the lands south of Metauros. During the 2nd Punic War they rebelled against Rome but later came under Roman protection. After Rome’s rise to power, the Taurians gained political autonomy from Rhegion.

The first settlement was largely rebuilt in the 2nd century BC, with a new city plan and rectangular streets. In the mid-10th century AD Byzantine Tauriana was destroyed by Saracens. Today, most finds are in the Archaeological Park of Tauriani.

From around 600 AD Taurianum became the seat of a Catholic diocese in the Reggio Calabria area. Saint Fantino the Elder, Calabria’s oldest saint, lived there. The crypt under the Temple of Santo Fantino is the oldest Catholic place of worship in the region. In 1040 the diocese lost territory to Oppido Mamertina, and in 1093 it was merged into Mileto.

Since the 1990s, excavations have uncovered a town dating from the late 4th to the 1st century BC, with streets, houses, drains and pottery. A remarkable house had about 20 rooms around a courtyard with a portico, a grand banquet hall, a bronze couch with silver decorations, and a hunting mosaic. The mosaic couch is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria. The house was later dismantled to build a large sanctuary on the plateau’s western edge.

The sanctuary is a podium temple in the Etruscan–Italic style, with a high rectangular platform about 10 by 20 meters, built in concrete and faced with brick, marble and stucco. Some bricks bear the stamp “Numitori.” The temple’s stairway faced a northward route, designed to be visible to ships sailing from the north.