Scalea

Sister cities

• Władysławowo

History

Scalea is the site of one of the first human settlements in southern Italy. Excavations of the caves beneath Torre Talao have unearthed Neanderthal bones and stone tools from the Paleolithic Era, and the surrounding Lao Valley also contains evidence of small Protohistoric, Bronze, and Iron Age (approximately 10,000-7,000 B.C.E.) communities throughout. In approximately 600 B.C.E., Greek Sybarites founded the city of Laüs along the Lao River heights in order to facilitate communications with their colony in Posidonia. Laüs is considered the antecedent of modern-day Scalea, as is the subsequent Roman colony of Lavinium. Ruins of imperial era Roman villas are scattered all throughout the surrounding plains and lowlands. The present city of Scalea arose sometime during the Lombard-Byzantine Conflict. Towards the end of the 600s, Scalea was occupied by the Lombards and it remained their colony up until Charlemagne's conquest of Italy in the 800s. The Lombards built the city's fortress, its two gates, and many surrounding homes that linked together to function as a wall. The city's main military gate sat at the top guarded by Gastaldo Fortress, which was later converted by the Normans into a castle, additional housing, and Piazza Cimalonga. It is during this time that the city came to be known as Scalea, perhaps due to the neighborhood surrounding the castle gradually developing outwards and vertically like rungs on a ladder. In the 700s, Scalea was home to the Anacoreti, an order of Byzantine Greek monks who lived an ascetic lifestyle in the Scalicella caves beneath the city. They would later be joined by monks who fled north during the Muslim conquest of Sicily in the 900s. Following a rebellion against the Angevin Empire in the 1100s, the port had been converted into…

Most-observed species

• Italian Wall Lizard

  Podarcis siculus (Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810) · Squamata
  44
• Japanese Cheesewood

  Pittosporum tobira (Murray) Aiton fil. · Magnoliopsida
  42
• Pyramidal Orchid

  Anacamptis pyramidalis (L.) Rich. · Liliopsida
  36
• Pitch Trefoil

  Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C.H.Stirt. · Magnoliopsida
  35
• Rock Samphire

  Crithmum maritimum L. · Magnoliopsida
  34
• Bermuda-buttercup

  Oxalis pes-caprae L. · Magnoliopsida
  31
• Yellow-legged Gull

  Larus michahellis J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  30
• Mastic Tree

  Pistacia lentiscus L. · Magnoliopsida
  28

Most recent

• M 6.2 — 2026-06-01
  23 km WSW of San Lucido, Italy
• M 4.1 — 2026-05-05
  34 km S of Marina di Camerota, Italy
• M 4 — 2026-04-25
  41 km WSW of Cittadella del Capo, Italy
• M 4.2 — 2026-03-06
  26 km ESE of Marina, Italy
• M 4.7 — 2026-02-21
  5 km WSW of Licinella-Torre di Paestum, Italy
• M 4.3 — 2025-03-18
  3 km NE of Potenza, Italy