Catanzaro: Historic Center, Park and Beach

Catanzaro combines historic cityscapes, art, nature and coastline into a varied setting for planning your trip. The historic center is home to medieval alleyways, museums and the Teatro Politeama; a spacious park extends across the city’s hills. Catanzaro Marina in the Lido district complements this picture with more than five kilometers of sandy beach. Anyone choosing a holiday apartment in Catanzaro can therefore focus on culture, landscape, beach and local cuisine.

Historic center between palaces and museums

The historic center of Catanzaro has winding alleyways and a medieval town center. Along Corso Mazzini, 19th-century palaces and monumental squares stand side by side. The Casa della Memoria Mimmo Rotella is also located in the historic center, housed in the artist’s childhood home. Its collection includes contemporary works as well as some works from the 1950s and 1960s, along with 250 books about major artists of Pop Art and Neorealism, photographs and memorabilia.

The city’s museum culture also caters to a range of interests. MARCA – Museo delle Arti Catanzaro is housed in the last surviving architectural testimony to Catanzaro’s golden age of silk production. The museum includes a collection of 39 paintings by Andrea Cefaly senior. MUSMI – Museo Storico Militare Brigata Catanzaro presents more than two centuries of military history through memorabilia, weapons and uniforms. A true-to-scale reconstruction of a World War I trench allows visitors to immerse themselves in the experience of the First World War.

Stage, rock history and contemporary art

The Teatro Politeama is also located in Catanzaro’s historic center and was designed by Paolo Portoghesi. Its stage is designed for opera, symphonic music, contemporary dance, operetta, spoken theater and musicals. The cultural spectrum therefore ranges from historic architecture and visual art to music and the performing arts.

The Museo del Rock offers a different perspective on contemporary history. It is dedicated to the golden age of rock ’n’ roll in the 1950s and 1960s and holds more than 10,000 original records, as well as contemporary posters, historic magazines and memorabilia. The Parco Internazionale della Scultura is also located in the Parco della Biodiversità Mediterranea Michele Traversa. It is an open-air gallery for contemporary art.

Parkland and sandy beach

The Parco della Biodiversità Mediterranea Michele Traversa extends across 60 hectares in the hills of Catanzaro. It contains recreated Mediterranean ecosystems featuring native species. Together with the open-air gallery for contemporary art, this creates a themed area where landscape and sculpture stand directly alongside one another. For a trip involving different interests, nature observation and art can therefore be planned as separate day ideas.

The coastal aspect is represented by Catanzaro Marina in the Lido district. There, the town has more than five kilometers of sandy beach. When planning your trip, this means that, alongside the old town, museums and stages, long stretches of beach are also available as a specific focus, without the city’s cultural themes having to take a back seat.

Choose a holiday apartment in Catanzaro according to your travel theme

The desired mix of culture, nature and coastline can help you determine which holiday apartment in Catanzaro is right for you. If historic spaces, paintings, military history and music are to be the focus, the city-center perspective offers particularly many concrete points of interest. Anyone planning their stay more around landscape and art in the open air will find a different guiding theme in the 60-hectare park. For beach days, Catanzaro Marina with its more than five-kilometer-long sandy beach provides a distinct focus.

Catanzaro also has a distinctive culinary specialty. In characteristic osterias, known as “putiche,” you can try local specialties such as “morseddhu.” This is a very spicy dish made from veal tripe. For families with different preferences, this creates a range of travel ideas: medieval alleyways and palaces, museums focusing on art and military history, rock ’n’ roll collections, parkland, beach and local cuisine.

Other destinations you can include in your plans are Sorbo San Basile, Soveria Mannelli, Squillace, Maida, Falerna, Simeri Mare, Amaroni and Caraffa Di Catanzaro.

For the higher-level travel overview: Catanzaro.