What is Taverna known for?

Baroque painter born in Taverna in 1613, the Cavaliere Calabrese; eleven of his canvases hang in San Domenico. Touring Club Italiano quality mark for the preserved centro storico and the cultural offering anchored on Preti. The town is inside Sila National Park; the frazione of Villaggio Mancuso sits at nearly 1,400 meters on the plateau.

Taverna is a comune in the province of Catanzaro, Calabria region of Italy, about 206 kilometers from Reggio Calabria.

Calabria · Catanzaro

Taverna

The birthplace of Mattia Preti at the foot of the Sila Piccola, where the church of San Domenico holds eleven of the Cavaliere Calabrese's paintings.

530m

Elevation

206 km / 128 mi

Nearest hub (Reggio Calabria)

2,522

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Taverna sits at around 530 meters at the foot of the Sila Piccola, inside Sila National Park. The town is best known as the birthplace of Mattia Preti, the Baroque painter born here in 1613 and known across Europe as the Cavaliere Calabrese. Preti worked in Rome, Naples and finally Malta, where he died in 1699 after decorating the conventual church of the Order of St. John in Valletta. He returned to Taverna repeatedly and sent paintings home. The Chiesa di San Domenico, set inside a fifteenth-century Dominican convent, holds eleven of his works, including a famous self-portrait and the cycle of frescoes on the life of San Domenico. The convent itself houses the Museo Civico. The town carries the Bandiera Arancione from the Touring Club Italiano. Beech and pine forests of Sila Piccola climb behind the centro, the high-altitude frazione of Villaggio Mancuso sitting at nearly 1,400 meters above the town.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa di San Domenico
Fifteenth-century Dominican church inside the centro storico, holding eleven works by Mattia Preti including the self-portrait and the cycle on the life of San Domenico.
Museo Civico di Taverna
Civic museum housed in the former fifteenth-century Dominican convent, dedicated largely to Mattia Preti and the Calabrian Baroque.
Parco Nazionale della Sila
The town falls inside Sila National Park; Sila Piccola's beech and pine forests rise directly behind the centro.
Villaggio Mancuso
Mountain frazione of Taverna at nearly 1,400 meters on the Sila Piccola plateau, used for summer escape and winter snow.
Centro storico
Bandiera Arancione hilltown of stone houses arranged around the San Domenico complex, awarded for the quality of its preserved core.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through October is the working season. Spring greens the Sila Piccola forests above the town; the centro at 530 meters stays cooler than the Catanzaro coast through June. July and August can run warm in the borgo but the frazione of Villaggio Mancuso, nearly 900 meters higher, draws the Catanzarese summer population. September and October are the easier months for the Preti circuit, when San Domenico is quiet and the light through the canvases comes in clean. Winters are cold and often snowy at altitude, with the Sila Piccola trails closed and many of the higher hamlets shuttered until spring.