The province of Cosenza ( it, provincia di Cosenza) is a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Cosenza. It contains 150 ''

comuni The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'', listed at

list of communes of the Province of Cosenza The following is a list of the 150 municipalities (''comuni'') of the Province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy. List See also *List of municipalities of Italy References

{{Province of Cosenza Lists of municipalities of Italy, Cosenza Muni ...

. The province of Cosenza contains a community of

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Vall ...

(also known as Langue d'oc) speakers in

Guardia Piemontese Guardia Piemontese ( Occitan: ''La Gàrdia'') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza and the region of Calabria in southern Italy. Location and language Guardia Piemontese is located about 55 km northwest of Cosenza on th ...

: it was formed by Vaudoi or Waldensian movement members, who moved to Cosenza to avoid religious persecution, in the 13th and 14th centuries. Many of the

Arbëreshë Arbën/Arbër, from which derived Arbënesh/Arbëresh originally meant all Albanians, until the 18th century. Today it is used for different groups of Albanian origin, including: * Arbër (given name), an Albanian masculine given name * Arbëresh ...

Albanians of Italy live in the province, since arriving in the 16th century to flee the religious persecution undertaken by the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

History

The first traces of human settlement in the area date from the early

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

period. These sites include the

Romito Cave The Romito cave ( it, Grotta del Romito) is a natural limestone cave in the Lao Valley of Pollino National Park, near the town of Papasidero in Calabria, Italy. Stratigraphic record of the first excavation confirmed prolonged paleo-human occupati ...

Papasidero Papasidero is a village and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region, southern Italy. It is part of Pollino National Park. Geography Papasidero is situated on a rocky spur 210 m above the sea level and is crossed by Lao an ...

, including wall paintings of

bovidae The Bovidae comprise the biological family of cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals that includes cattle, bison, buffalo, antelopes, and caprines. A member of this family is called a bovid. With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, t ...

. Cosenza began as a settlement of the Italic Bruttii tribe, and became their capital before the Romans invaded the area. The town was conquered by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

in 204 BC and was named Cosentia. Starting from the 8th century BC, the current provincial area became part of the so-called

Greater Greece The Megali Idea ( el, Μεγάλη Ιδέα, Megáli Idéa, Great Idea) is a nationalist and irredentist concept that expresses the goal of reviving the Byzantine Empire, by establishing a Greek state, which would include the large Greek popu ...

. Greek cities, including Sibari and Pandosia, were mostly located on the coastal area and at the foot of the

Pollino The Pollino (Italian: ''Massiccio del Pollino'') is a massif in the southern Apennines, on the border between Basilicata and Calabria, southern Italy. It became part of the Pollino National Park in 1992. The main peaks include Monte Pollino ...

massif. King of the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

Alaric I conquered the region during the later stages of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...

and according to legend, Alaric I is buried in Cosenza along with a large treasure hoard. Later Cosenza fell under the rule of the Byzantine Empire for a brief period of time, before being conquered by the

Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the '' History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...

, as part of the

Duchy of Benevento The Duchy of Benevento (after 774, Principality of Benevento) was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian Peninsula that was centred on Benevento, a city in Southern Italy. Lombard dukes ruled Benevento from 571 to 1077, when it was conq ...

. Roger II of Sicily made it the capital of Terra Giordana in the 12th century. In Modern times, as part of the Kingdom of Naples and later of the

Kingdom of Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and all ...

, the province remained mostly a rural area devoted to agriculture and animal husbandry.

Feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

was abolished only in the 19th century. The area was also seat to several forms of brigandage during the centuries.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cosenza