A map, if one knows how to interpret it, offers valuable information that is often missing from historical documents. The one that’s most suggestive is certainly the mural in the Galleria del Belvedere (the Belvedere Gallery) depicting the two Calabrias. It is part of a spectacular series of frescos of maps (large murals) carried out by the Dominican friar Egnazio Danti, beginning in 1580.

Hither Calabria. Belvedere Gallery – Vatican Museums (1580)
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We have opened this cartographic section with this image from the Vatican Museums, because Nicastro appears on it with the name Neocastro. S. Eufemia is also cited on it, it’s name coinciding with the current one.

The Lamezian Territory
Hither Calabria Belvedere Gallery – Vatican Museums (1580)
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Nicastro, and other towns of the Lamezian territory also appear on maps of the same period or immediately afterwards, which began to depict with increasing precision the territory of the Kingdom of Naples.

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