Monuments and Ethno-anthropological heritage

Madonna dei Termini’s column

A column dated 1954 arises in the square in front of the church. With its tuscan taste and masonry, a statue representing the Madonna with Child is located. The wooden shape of the column was built by the brothers Peppino and Nicola Castanò , the local cabinetmakers. Before the pouring of cement carried out by the Gregorio Froio’s enterprise (maṣṭṛu Gorinu) from Montauro, a bottle containing a parchment with signatures of illustrious people had been buried. Among the signatures those of the High Priest Don Nicola Paparo, the priest Don Giovanni Apa, the Mayor Francesco Caruso (ndon Cìcciu), the Vice-Mayor Dr. Gregorio Macrina, ndon Giannino Lomanni, Salvatore Procopio (Turùzzu) .

On the southern side of the column a marmoreal epigraph dated 1958 is affixed, the year of the centennial of the apparition of the Madonna of Lourdes, that says in this way:
“O Celestial Queen bless with maternal sweetness your devoted children in Gasperina”

(cfr. fonte: Mario Voci, Gasperina e dintorni. Storia – Arte – Natura, Vibo Valentia, Qualecultura, 2009)

‘A menzalora

The most ancient unity of measure is the “footstep”, but they worried about time, not the space: “a day of walk”, which was different if with a load on or light; the distance without points of reference, in sea or in a desert, was uncertain. The Roman measurement in milia remains precise, and it can be found in toponyms like: Quattro Miglia, Miglierina… Smaller measures were “canes” and “half canes”,”cubits” (elbows) and “palms.” The extension and its product were called tùmanu. For the weight, it was practical to mind the container and not to the content. The tonnage of the Roman ships was valued in amphoras. Our countries became equipped with a public tool appropriate to measure cereals, bowline, beans; it was a container made of granite, with an orifice in the lower part, that could count about 25 kilos; others were used for the fractions. They gave it the aspect of a severe and friendly face which had a date and an incision. In dialect, this measure was called menzalora.