Pentedattilo is an Italian abandoned village hamlet of Melito Porto Salvo in Reggio Calabria. Located about 250 meters above the sea level on the cliff of Mount Calvary, it overlooks the Ionian Sea and the stunning views of the nearby Sicily and Mount Etna. Its characteristic shape resembles a gigantic hand with five fingers, and it’s from this peculiarity that derives its name “Pentedattilo”: Penta + Daktylos = Five Fingers. Unfortunately, some parts of the mountain collapsed down and it no longer represents all of the five "fingers”. The area remains a fascinating place, related to a lots of myths and legends, full of mystery, and it is of course one of the most characteristic of the Area Grecanica. The town has ancient origins, and its foundation dates back to 640 BC.
For the Greek-Roman period, the city was a thriving and vibrant economic center, as well as an important military center, due to its strategic position of control over the torrent Sant'Elia, the privileged path to reach the Aspromonte. With the Byzantine era, for the city began a long period of decline, caused by the continuous looting made by the Saracens and later by the Duke of Calabria. After the occupation of the Normans in the twelfth century, Pentadattilo came under the rule of the Marquis Alberti. To this family, a horrible crime, committed in 1686, is linked. We’re talking of the famous so-called “Strage degli Alberti”, unearthed by the novel of Andrea Cantadori "The tragedy of Pentidattilo." Protagonists of this story were the members of two noble Calabria families, that of Alberti, Marquis of Pentadattilo, and that of Abenavoli, barons of Montebello and former vassals of Pentidattilo. Rivalry and hatred existed from a long time between the two families; the conflict mainly regarded matter of common borders. Around 1680, the tensions between the two families seemed to be waning for both pressures of the Viceroy, which sought to pacify the area, and because the founder family Abenavoli, Baron Bernardino, planned to take Antonietta, the daughter of the Marquis Domenico Alberti, as his wife.
It so happens, however, that in 1685 the Marquis Domenico dies and is succeeded by his son Lorenzo, who, a few months after his father's death, married Catherine Cortez, daughter of the Viceroy of Naples. On such a marriage, a long and sumptuous cortege that included, in addition to the bride, the Viceroy and his wife as well as his son Don Petrillo Cortez, arrived from Naples. At the ceremony, the young Don Petrillo had the opportunity to meet Antonietta; after the marriage, Don Petrillo, due to his mother sudden illness was forced to remain in Calabria, having in that way the chance of to date the girl, whom he later felt in love with. After a brief period, Petrillo asked Lorenzo to marry his sister, but, the Marquis Alberti, not knowing his father previous accord, agreed to the wedding. The news of the official engagement between Don Cortez and Antonietta Petrillo Alberti sent on the rampage Bernardino that, hurt in feelings and pride, decided to take revenge overall Alberti family. The story goes that, on the night of 16 April 1686, Bernardino, due to the treachery of Joseph Scrufari, unfaithful servant of the Alberti, introduced himself inside the castle of Pentadattilo with a group of armed men. He first surprised Lorenzo, who was asleep, killing him with two shots of musket and finishing him with 14 stabs. Later, with his men, Bernardino rushed to the assault of the various castle’s rooms, killing most of the occupants including Simone Alberti, the 9 year old little brother of Lorenzo, fatally crashed into a rock. From this massacre were spared only: Caterina Cortez, Antonietta Alberti, her little sister Teodora, her mother Donna Giovanna Petrillo and Don Cortez, taken hostage as a guarantee against possible retaliation of the Viceroy to the Abenavoli. Antonietta and her lover were brought to the Abenavoli castle of Montebello where Bernardino, on the 19 of April, forced Antonietta to marry him. News of the massacre came to the Viceroy Cortez, who immediately sent a real military expedition. The army attacked the castle of Abenavoli, freed Don Petrillo and captured seven perpetrators of the massacre, whose heads were cut off and hung on the battlements of the castle of Pentadattilo.
The Baron Abenavoli, thanks to various tricks and support, managed to escape from the troops of the Viceroy along with Antoinette and, after entrusting his wife to a convent, ran first to Malta and then to Vienna, where he entered the Austrian army. After become an appointed captain, he was killed by a cannon ball during a naval battle in 21 August 1692. Antonietta Alberti, whose marriage was annulled by the Roman Rota in 1690 because it was the result of a violence, ended her days in the cloistered convent of Reggio Calabria, consumed by the pain and anguish, because she felt as the unintended cause of the 'slaughter of his family. Over the time, this tragic story of love and obsessive passion, to the point that blind the human soul, has given rise to many legends and rumours. It seems that the stone towers, which overlooks the town, represent the bloody fingers of the Marquis Lorenzo Alberti and the huge hand that one day will fall on men to punish them for their thirst of blood. It is also said that at night, in winter, when the wind is violently channelled between the gorges of the mountain, you can still hear the screams of the Marquis Alberti. The domination of the Alberti lasted until 1760, but those tragic events were not the only ones to undermine the existence of the small village of Pentadattilo. In 1783 a violent earthquake devastated the town and destroyed several houses. This prompted several families to move to the nearby Melito Porto Salvo, and to call this place "the walking country" just because of the instability of the soil and rock that hosts it.
Today Pentadattilo lives in the memory of those people who know its history and that, with emotion and enthusiasm, do not hesitate to tell others fascinating legends of this charming village that still has much to offer and to tell. Thanks to the passion and commitment of these people, since the early '80s, Pentadattilo was rediscovered by young people and associations who have started a slow path to recovery with the help of volunteers from all over Europe. A concrete result of this voluntary work is the restoration of the church of SS. Peter and Paul, which now houses a church choir. Moreover, every summer Pentadattilo is the destination of the traveling festival "Paleariza", an important event that takes place annually in the province of Reggio Calabria. In addition, between August and September the city hosts the "Pentedattilo Film Festival", an international festival of short films that combines film and territory. Calabria, in which palm lies the ghost town of Pentadattilo, one of the most beautiful and fascinating places of Aspromonte, and from which derives its nickname “The hand of the Devil”.
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