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Architectonic and urban features (references for the styles of architecture)

As in most of the colonies of Magna Grecia, also at Lokroi the necessity of assigning suitable lots of land for the construction of houses was met by a planned organisation of the urban space, obtained by tracing a series of parallel alignments which were rectilinear and at distances which were regular, interrupted by orthogonal alignments with the same characteristics. The presence at Lokroi of a vast flat area which ran from the foothills to the sea facilitated the realisation of the road network required by such planning. A dense series of narrow streets (stenopoi, about 4-5 m wide) laid out from the hillside downhill in order to facilitate the flow of water, which were then intersected orthogonally with a much smaller number of wide roads (plateiai, 27.5 – 28 m wide) each at a considerable distance from the other. The blocks thus obtained (about 27.5-28 m in width and 110 m in length) were often further articulated longitudinally by lanes (ambitus) which served for the drainage of water from house rooftops.





Urban organisation must have been conceived and realised at a time not long distant from the arrival of the Lokroian colonists at the site. For the inhabited area of Centocamere, that which has been moist investigated, the existence of a layout around the middle of the 6th century BC. This was maintained for centuries without alterations or illegitimate occupation of public terrain. This does not mean that occasional variations were not necessary as the urban area was occupied. For example at Centocamere, the sector parallel to the city walls, which was initially left free, was later organised into irregular blocks in that they were divided by streets which were not always orthogonal and straight.


The Streets
The streets were created in a simple manner, cast in sand and gravel mixed with ceramic fragments which facilitated the absorption of rainwater. Water drainage was guaranteed by canals made of brick. The plateiai. The main plateia has been uncovered in the Centocamere area. It proceeds in a rectilinear manner almost parallel to the coast, coming to an end to thre east at the port of Parapezza, near the sanctuary of Marasà, acting therefore as a link between a densely populated area and one of the most important sacred areas and the necropoli outside the walls. At the foot of the hills, today’s road of the Dromo (name of Greek origin from Dromos = way) follows in all probability the course of another plateiai which represented the hinge point between the densely inhabited plain and the area of the foothills, the heart of the city, and hills themselves, where there were important sanctuaries, also connecting with an extra mural north-eastern area occupied by an important necropolis. A plateia running downhill may correspond to the present day country road which from the Dromo winds along the Roman sector of the city, issuing between Centocamere and Marasà Sud. This linked the central area of the city and the beach with the docking area, emerging from the city walls at the “port of Aphrodite”.


The Walls
From the inception of the colony, the Lokroians had to establish a sacred perimeter which separated the urban area from that destined for burials. From the middle of the 6th century BC probably as part of a plan coordinated for the realisation of the urban system, this sacred enclosure acquires the status of a monument with the construction of the wall, which for a long time had the sole function of limit to the urban area, as is testified by the important structures both close by and at a short distance from the external side of the circuit. Only in the first decades of the 3rd century BC did increased defence requirements render reinforcement work for the walls indispensable, and this was effected on several occasions with thickening of the curtain, rectification of parts in order to eliminate the external and abandoned structures, erection of towers capable of resisting sieges. A significant testimony to this building phase is found in the bronze tablets in the archive of the sanctuary to Zeus Olimpio, which report the loans granted by the sanctuary itself to the city in order to cover the expenses of the work on the walls. The wall perimeter, of about 7 km is present on the plain, and is constituted of a rectilinear arm parallel to the coast in which are grafted, almost at right angles, two stretches from mountain to sea which are also rectilinear. As they rise up the hill, these take on a an articulated progress following the morphology of the three hills which they incorporated for defence purposes. There are openings in the walls, on occasion constituted of monumental doors, often protected by defence towers, erected also at other strategic points like in the hills. The walls are made of square sandstone blocks on several layers and rows, with a face in limestone blocks on the external in order to offer more resistance, thanks to the greater compactness of the material. The thickness of the walls was probably not identical along all their parts and would have changed in the course of time, but it is possible to indicate a standard width of 2.5 m at least for the ancient walls. It is more difficult to determine the development of their height and to establish what aspect the upper part had. It was conceivably composed of simple brick.


The walls on the plain
The stretch of wall along the coast, which was about 1 km was brought to light by the inhabited part of Centocamere, passing through the sacred area of Marasà Sud and corresponds to the ancient port basin as far as the tower of Parapezza. It is characterised by the presence of four openings: the opening “with postern”, the “propylaeum”, the “gate of Aphrodite” and the “portuense gate”. The Walls in contrada Centocamere. At the time of their building, these were not supposed to have a defensive function – they were simply a limit to the urban area. They were, in effect traced in such a way as to form a double angle in correspondence to the ancient religious structure called “stoà ad U” left outside the city perhaps because cebtre to rites which were extraneous to the traditional forms of worship, yet so near to the walls as to render any possibility of defence vain. These walls also manifested a large opening which allowed for passage from the city towards the beach and the docking points, which became a monument at the end of the 6th century BC in the form of a columned doorway of the Doric type (the “propylaeum”) and this also was not possible to defend militarily. More to the west there was also a opening “with postern”, represented by a large canal separated by a wall and accompanied by two wall like structures which had the function of conveying the waters of one of the two branches of the Milligri torrent. The presence next to the propylaeum, in the 4th century BC of a portico with commercial or welcoming functions on the external side of the walls testifies to the fact that it was only around the first decades of the 3rd century BC that they took on a genuinely defensive character. The propylaeum and the external structures were demolished and the opening with the propylaeum was closed and sandstone blocks places in the furrows in the road which had been created over the centuries. The walls were thickened thanks to a support wall placed against the inner side in order to support a roof in bare brick. The wall sector forming the double angle was substituted by a rectilinear stretch placed over the abandoned stoà ad U, which was also built of crude brick on a nest of river stones and recycled materials, among which about ten sections of column are noticeable.


The walls between the contradas Marasà Sud and Parapezza.
The sector external to the walls in this area was occupied by an artificial basin behind the port which, it is hypothesised, was in this area. Wall structures orthogonal to the walls and stretching towards the sea indicated the limits of this basin, defending it and stopping it from filling with sand. In correspondence to the area sacred to Aphrodite at Marasà Sud there was the “port of Aphrodite”, constituted of an opening defended by two towers and at which the mountain-sea road arrived more or less corresponding to the country road which crosses the area today. This was on the trajectory of the stretch of wall which was behind with regard to the line of the remaining curtain on account of the elbow shaped return in correspondence to the religious building of the stoà ad U. In an advanced position, along the line of the curtain, there was a second opening per canalisation of water, which, in the Hellenic period, after the abandonment of all of the mountain-ward part of the walls, became the main port protected by two tetragonal towers. At about 200 m to the east there was the “porta portuense”, realised in the second half of the 6th century BC with reconstruction after two centuries and constituted by an opening for pedestrians into which a road flowed which entered the city giving access to the sanctuary of Marasà which was not far away. It also had a passage for water constituted of a structure which directed the water towards the exterior thus avoiding weakening of the walls themselves. The stretch of wall that ran from the mountain to the sea to the north east, of about 2.5 km in length was uncovered in contrada Parapezza, running from behind the Museum to the sanctuary of Marasà. Its orientation is independent of the urban area and is possibly related to a little water course which descended in ancient times from the hills collecting the waters of the Saitta and Polisà valleys. It has a quadrangular tower at an angle to the arm of wall which is parallel to the coast and a circular tower protecting a gate, at which entered a large road (uncovered at Centocamere) which connected the urban area to the necropolei and the chora. A little further up from the opening there was a stairs which gave access to the patrol walkway of the walls. The stretch of walls mountain to sea to the south west of about 2.5 km has been used over the centuries as a road and today is covered by the provincial road to Portigliola, a circumstanmce which has permitted only partial exploration of its structure. The dating of this stretch of wall has been made possible by the discovery, in contrada Quote S: Francesco of a small votive deposit which was made at the moment of the construction of the walls themselves – eviudently placed under the protection of the divinities – with material, now at the museum in Lokroi, which dates to shortly after the middle of the 6th century BC. Further north, an opening has been identified, with jambs made of sandstone blocks, from which two parallel and oblique structures branched off and which had the function of containing a water course, perhaps a small one descending from the hills, which if not channelled, risked weakening the wall foundations. Further up the foundations of a rectangular forepart have been found which can be interpreted as a tower, built in defence of a hypothetical gateway into which one of the principal roads of the Lokroian urban system would have passed, the great road which ran to the foothills in parallel to the coast and which today is traced by the Dromo road.


The hill walls.
Above the Dromo, the natural route which runs to the base of the hills parallel to the coastline, the walls follow the form of the hills, lying o the brow of the reliefs in order to exploit fully the uneven terrain. On the slope of SO these rise to the peak of Castellace, where a massive tower dominated the territory of Lokroi and the coast. They then descend the deep narrow Milligri valley, rise up the hill of Abbadessa to descend again the Saitta-Abbadessa valley and finally they rise the slope of NE where at the summit of the Mannella there was the Marzano tower. La torre di Castellace. The hill of Castellace was one of the most strategic points of the entire Lokroian fortification system, dominating the entire territory of the colony and permitting a view of the sretch of coast betweencapo Bruzzano (the ancient capo Zefirio) and the cliffs of Roccella Ionica. On this hill a tower of great monumental import was constructed, alongside of which a tower of smaller dimensions was afterwards built. The original tower consists of a large irregular quadrangular base 13 by 11 m with perimeter walls of a width of 4.5 m made of square sandstone blocks placed on top to offer maximum resistance. On the base there was an elevation of more regular form with walls which were less wide though still quite exceptional. The inner space, at least on the lower floor was filled with broken earth and sandstone chips (emplekton). As for the stretches of wall grafted to it, it is not clear if such a tower was foreseen in the original plan for the walls of Lokroi, datable well into the 6th century BC or whether it was built at a subsequent stage. It is with greater probability of certainty that one can link the second tower to the reinforcement work carried out in the Hellenic period. Smaller in dimension (6 x 8 m)and in terms of the width of its perimeter walls. This tower was erected on the NE side of the older one merging its foundations into the walls of the latter.


The tower of casa Marzano.
The hill of Mannella is one of the strong points of the Lokroian defensive system. On its summit an important circular tower was erected, and its northern edge was reinforced by another tower called “di casa Marzano” from the name of the owner of the colonial house – now demolished – built incorporating the remains of the more ancient structure. This tower (9 x 8 m) is constituted of two rectangular rooms side by side, as with the tower of Castellace. The base had a full structure, filled with earth and sandstone chips (emplekton), and a perimeter wall on the mountain side of greater thickness compared to the other three, in such a way as to resist the weight of the earth of the slope above. Its chronology is uncertain, even though, for structural reasons, one can affirm that it was built at a time subsequent to the construction of the stretch of wall on which it is mounted.





The sanctuaries
The Lokroi colony was rich in sanctuaries, as required by the kind of polytheistic religion which not only embraced the cult of more than one divinity, but also of the one divinity venerated in its multiple aspects.Such sanctuaries were distributed widely both in the flat land sector and in the hillside sector of the city and were locate both inside and outside the walls. The sanctuaries so far identified in the urban area, dedicated to the divine protectors of the city, were distributed alongside the inner side of the north eastern stretch of the city walls, probably constituting a sort of sacred protective belt to the curtain itself. These sanctuaries were representative of the economic and political wealth achieved by the colony and had, in effect, monumental temples of great architectural import such as the Ionian temple of Marasà and the Doric temple of casa Marafioti. The temple of Athena also seems to have been a monument at least in the 4th century BC. The finding inside a stone shrine of bronze tablets bearing inscriptions of financial accounts for the sanctuary of Zeus Olimpio testifies to the existence of sacred areas dedicated not just to religious functions but also to the carrying out of activities related to the financial and administrative management of the temple, which often was interwoven with the economic life of the city. The sanctuaries found outside the urban area, positioned just outside the walls, satisfied, on the other hand, the needs of different cults. Having in common the absence of monuments, their wealth is testified to by the extraordinarily high number of ex voto discovered in them. The most celebrated of these is the sanctuary of the hill of Mannella, dedicated to Persephone, protector of agricultural activity. Further downhill there was the sanctuary of Grotta Caruso, built around a natural water spring and centre to the cult of the Nymphs and of all the divinities related to the rural world. On the coastal plain, in contrada Parapezza, not far from the necropolei there was, on the other hand, the sanctuary of Demetra. Nearby, a cabinet crammed with reliefs of Zeus, here venerated in his infernal aspect and as protector of the walls. Outside the southern sector of the city, along the coast and near the port area, there was an area sacred to Aphrodite who was venerated as protector of sailors and the sea.


The Nekropolis
The nekropolis in Lokroi were distributed at the margins of the urban area beyond the city walls, having a spatial organisation typical of the ancient Greek cities, which foresaw, from the moment of the foundation of the colony a clear separation between the “city of the living”, the urban space proper, and the “city of the dead” the space dedicated to burial. Links were ensured by roads which exited from the city towards the surrounding territory (the chora). For example, the necropolis of Parapezza and Lucifero were reachable by means of the great road (plateia) which from the Centocamere district ran as far as the sanctuary of Marasà to then exit towards the county from the port of Parapezza. The tombs simple in structure. The body was interred in a pit protected in various ways or burned and the remains deposited on the land or gathered in a ceramic container. Above the tomb a small stone was placed or a ritual object (a large figured vase or a small terracotta altar). Beside the body funeral goods were laid composed of materials of varied nature: vases objects of personal ornament, work equipment, small statues. These objects accompanied the dead on their journey beyond the grave, symbolically recalling their earthly lives. The nekropolis of Lucifero. The necropolis of Lucifero, positioned at about 500 m from the ancient city beyond the torrent of the same name, was dug in the years between 1910-15 by Paolo Orsi, who identified around 1700 tombs which can be dated between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 2nd centuries BC, but which are above all concentrated between the 5th and 4th centuries. Those which are most common are those for burial of the body, with the corpse deposited in a simple pit dug into the sandy terrain, with the walls sometimes covered with clay or other materials. The pit could be covered with a layer of tiles with other tiles at the joins, or from the 5th century BC onwards with arge tiles disposed in the “cappuccino” manner, ie: in a double slope, or with large curvilinear bricks, originally used for wells but reused for this purpose.


The nekropolis of Parapezza
The necropolis of Parapezza situated between the necropolis of Lucifero and the stretch of walls which goes towards the sea which skirted the city to the east, was partially investigated in 1979 by a dig team which brought more than 200 tombs to light, belonging to two distinct chronological phases, one archaic (6th century BC) and the other Hellenic (3rd – 2nd century BC). There are burial tombs similar to those already described. Only in one case is there an exceptional covering in stone slabs. In the archaic period there are also cremation tombs in large ceramic containers, above all amphoras for transportation, hydriai for water and chytrai for cooking foodstuffs. Other nekropolis sectors. A Greek necropolis has been discovered in contrada Tribona in the extraurban sector opposite the necropolei of Parapezza and Lucifero, while higher up with regard to these in an area not far from the end of the Dromo (which corresponds to the ancient plateia, the great road which linked the hill area to the plain) the Necorpolis of Monaci was discovered. Also near to the Dromo, in the present day contrada Faraone, as well as some tombs, a small limestone pediment has been found which can be dated between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, and which is pertinent to a funeral aedicule, which is the only existing testimony of a monumental tomb at Lokroi. The presence in the area of tombs whose architectural characteristics symbolised the prestige enjoyed in life by the dead person, is also demonstrated by the finding of a headless marble statue which canb be dated to the 4th – 3rd centuries BC and which regards in all probability a funeral monument.


The Theatre
The theatre at Lokroi was identified and analysed in 1940 by P.E. Arias, brought to light to its full extent by A de Franciscis at the end of the 1950’s and newly investigated by C. Parra in 1976. It was realised by exploiting a natural concavity at the foot of Cusemi immediately below the temple of Casa Marafioti, in present day contrada Pirettina. The choice was dictated by the excellent natural acoustics of the site, as demonstrated even today by the remarkable echo which is noticeable, and by the possibility of deducing the position of the steps of the cavea in the extremely soft clay of the slope, according to a system which was widespread in the Greek world. The presence of the theatre in a sector of the inhabited area which is part of the regular urban layout which is well known in the coastal zone, demonstrates that the theatre was not linked to the agorà which, however, could not have been far off, perhaps more to the west. It was, in any case, an important building in public life, in that it was the centre not only for theatrical shows, but also for the political meetings of the general assembly of citizens. This last circumstance brings together the construction of the theatre with the introduction at Lokroi of democratic order, subsequent to the expulsion of the tyrant of Syracuse Dionysisu II in 346 BC and suggests a possible date for the general layout of the theatre itself in the middle of the 4th century BC. This chronology is confirmed by more ancient material discovered at the theatre, or rather some fixtures for the decoration of tiles on the edge of the roof, which may have decorated a scene built completely in wood. Thanks to the remains of the foundations in blocks of sandstone, it is possible to reconstruct the building, in which the dramatic representations were performed, positioned in front of the concavity of the theatre. It emerges that this was constituted of a rectangular space for the stage (proskenion), framed by two wings (paraskenia) with a long space at the back. In front of the stage there is the space for the orchestra in a horseshoe shape where movement and dances of the chorus were performed. Its original diameter is unknown, in that the present diameter of 37 m dates back to the Roman phase. Around the orchestra there ran a little channel covered by stone slabs (euripus) in which water flowing from the stands was collected. The cavea (koilon) constituted of big steps partly cut into the sandstone slope and in part organised with slabs of sandstone itself was subdivided into seven wedges (kerkides) by means of six stairlets (klimakes) which allowed people access to each type of place, while a horizontal patition (daizoma) separated the higher stands (epitheatron), today cancelled out by erosion of the hill. It has been calculated that audience capacity was around 4,500. In the Roman period, adaptation was made necessary by a change in the type of spectacle in fashion. The lower stand rows were eliminated and a semi-circular walls was built of blocks of limestone to protect the spectators during the fights between gladiators or fights between men and animals, shows which were normally performed in amphitheatres. Behind the continuous wall three service rooms were built of which only the central one remains today. To the south of the building a plastered basin was added, perhaps a fountain and in the upper part of the cavea, with little radial walls to support the wooden seats the stands were restored, which had fallen into disrepair in the ancient period. Lastly, cavities for vertical beams were prepared to support a velum to protect spectators from the sun. This series of rearrangements demonstrates how, even in the Roman period, a certain flourishing of the city persisted, and how it evidently continued to have a necessity for complex associative structures and how it was able to afford the expense for the setting up of costly entertainments.


The Agorà
The area which stretches in the eastern sector of the central strip of the Lokroian urban area to the foothills of Cusemi, in today’s contrada Pirettina, manifests a dense concentration of buildings which are public, sacred and civil, which, albeit not al contemporary, testify to the importance of the area for the ancient city. It is not a coincidence that Cusemi has been identified with the hill of Esopis cited in sources, and on which the Lokroians established their definitive seat after the brief stop at Capo Zefirio. It is possible that from the summit of Cusemi the acropolis had it beginnings, as one is led to think by the long demarcation wall between the area below, seat of the inhabited area and public activities and the area above, with its sanctuaries and defensive structures. The hinge point among these urban sectors was the great road (plateia) parallel to the coast todat retraced by the route of the Dromo to the foothills. This series of ascertainments leads to the supposition that not far from this area there was an agorà, the square so far not identified on account of the presence of modern buildings and intensive cultivation which impedes research. The agora was the heart of all the Greek cities and had many functions – commercial, associative, political. The centre for the market where local and imported products arrived, it was the meeting point for business men. Public place par excellence, it hosted buildings which served for political activity, , ideal centre for the polis, it hosted the collective symbolic monuments and the buildings sacred to the protective divinities of the political institutions. It is possible that the square at Lokroi included structures which responded to these exigencies, but not the theatre, used apart from for shows, for political assemblies, which is located in natural concavity between the sanctuary of casa Marafioti above, and the inhabited area, below, in a position, therefore, definitely non linked to the agora.

Habitat features (elevation, materials for the textures, etc)

The district of Centocamere is in the level part of the city, not far from the coastline and below the stretch of city wall which ran parallel to it. Digs in the 1960’s and restoration interventions in the 1990’s have offered a large mass of data not only regarding the urban organisation of the city but also regarding the private buildings. Beside, or inserted within the inhabited buildings, there have emerged crafts laboratories or workshops for the working of clay, alongside of which, probably, there were shops for the sale of the finished products.


The Houses
Consequent to the peripheral characteristics of the quarters in Centocamere, destined for a class crafts workers, the houses are of modest dimension and organised according to a simple, functional scheme - a series of covered spaces distributed around an uncovered space which is often quite extensive, the yard. This is a planimetric typology which is quite widespread in the Mediterranean basin, dictated by the multiplicity of functions of the yard: access for the rooms around it (when it occupied a central position) and element capable of isolating the occupied rooms (when it was opposite these and facing the road) it was the centre for all domestic activities (it is sufficient to consider, that, for reasons of security, it was outside that food was cooked) and so it was there that most of daily life was conducted. Apart from being used for orchards and gardens, the yard could be occupied by light structures made of perishable materials like canopies, fences for animals, verandas. In front of the yard there was frequently a little portico, still evident today in rural Mediterranean houses. The function of the rooms is hard to establish, unless particulars in their construction of found objects offer clues. Some were for use as bedrooms, others for eating and very occasionally they were used for representation. As far as building techniques are concerned, the houses were built using simple brick for the upper part (that is, brick baked in the sun), protected from humidity by the realisation of a stone and brick plinth and thanks to an external wall covering with a layer of clay or plaster. The roofs were made with tiles in baked clay so as to offer protection against rainwater.





The ceramics workshops
A sector of the inhabited part of Centocamere was chosen by the Lokroians for the installation of the “ceramico” or rather the quarter in which all activities related to the production of terracotta. The area of Centocamere had the necessari requirement to be centre of the craftsmen’s quarter, that is the peripheral location, near the city gates, which allowed for easy supply of raw materials and a better dispersion of the smoke from the furnaces. Of these ceramics, which emerged first in the ancient period, we have ample documentation regarding above all the Hellenic period and which consists principally in the finding of a good 18 furnaces, of different form and dimension according to the products which they had to cook. In general the smaller furnaces were used for small statues and vases of smaller dimensions while the larger furnaces were used for large containers and bricks. These furnaces were commonly part of extended and complex productive plants, made necessary by the multiplicity of phases involved in the working of clay. It is not infrequently the case that the laboratories were environments in which the craftsmen lived with their families, the members of which were often involved themselves in the working activities. Often they had shop rooms beside them in which to exhibit and sell their products.








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