Pentedattilo: the abandoned village on the hand-shaped rock

Pentedattilo sits in the palm of a stone hand. Behind the village, Monte Calvario splits into five sandstone pinnacles, and the houses tucked themselves underneath, clinging to the rock above the Sant'Elia torrent. It is a hamlet of Melito di Porto Salvo, on the edge of the Grecanic area, a little over half an hour by car from Reggio Calabria.

For some thirty years it was an empty village: declared unsafe in 1968 and completely abandoned in 1971, when the last inhabitants moved down to the valley. Then came the volunteers, the restored houses, the artisan workshops and a short film festival. Today you walk up for an hour or two, through cobbled alleys, past two old churches and a view that on clear days reaches Sicily.

The five-fingered rock and its Greek name

The name comes from the Greek pénte dáktylos, five fingers. Behind the village, Monte Calvario, a sandstone crag that reaches about 250 metres above sea level, splits into five pinnacles lined up like an open hand against the sky. Sandstone is soft rock: over the centuries the pinnacles have lost pieces, and the outline you see today is no longer exactly the one nineteenth-century travellers drew.

The village was built inside the palm, its houses pressed against the rock face and its roofs following the slope. Below runs the Sant'Elia torrent, a wide gravel bed that is almost dry in summer and drops towards the Ionian Sea. Administratively Pentedattilo is a hamlet of Melito di Porto Salvo, but geographically it already sits in between: the sea four kilometres away, the first buttresses of the Aspromonte behind it, and the Grecanic area beginning a little further east.

From Chalcidian colony to the Alberti fief

Pentedattilo began as a Chalcidian colony around 640 BC, on a site chosen to control the Sant'Elia valley and the stretch of coast below. When Byzantine rule ended, raids from the sea did the rest of the work: those living down below moved up, and the village drew tight around the crag, which worked as a natural fortress.

In the twelfth century the Normans turned the territory into a barony, entrusted to the Abenavoli del Franco family. It later passed to the Francoperta, and in 1589 it was bought by the Alberti for 15,180 ducats, a figure that says how much the fief was worth. The Alberti held it until 1760, when it passed to the Clemente family, and from 1823 to the Ramirez. Of the baronial castle, partly carved out of the rock itself, walls and rooms survive today, absorbed into the fabric of the village on the side facing the torrent.

The 1686 massacre and the legend of the bloodstained hand

The established facts are these. On the night of 16 April 1686, Baron Bernardino Abenavoli, heir of the family that had lost the fief, entered the Alberti castle with a group of armed men. Marquis Lorenzo Alberti was killed by gunshot and dagger, and other family members died with him. Behind the clash lay the arranged marriage between Antonietta Alberti, the marquis's sister, and Petrillo Cortés: Abenavoli wanted to marry her himself. Antonietta survived, was forced to marry her attacker and ended her days shut in a convent. Seven of those who carried out the attack were tried and executed.

Out of the court record grew the legend, which is a different matter. The story goes that at sunset the crag turns red because it is Alberti blood colouring it, and that on windy nights the cries of that night can still be heard among the pinnacles. The red is in fact sandstone catching the low light; but the tale fits the landscape so neatly that it has stuck to the village.

Abandonment and the return to life

The 1783 earthquake began the long decline. Many families moved down towards the sea, and in 1811 Pentedattilo lost its municipal independence, becoming a hamlet of Melito di Porto Salvo. The 1908 quake added further damage, but the decisive blow came in 1968, when blocks of sandstone broke off the crag and the old settlement was declared unsafe. In 1971 the last inhabitants moved about a kilometre downhill, to the new Pentedattilo.

The return began in the 1980s with international volunteer camps: groups of young Europeans who came up each summer to clear rubble and rebuild walls. In 1996 the Pro Pentedattilo association was founded, and it has led the restoration of the houses, the repaving of the main street and the reopening of small workshops. Since 2006 the village has hosted the Pentedattilo Film Festival, an international short film event with open-air screenings among the alleys, masterclasses and concerts.

What you see walking up through the alleys

You leave the car below the village and continue on foot along a stone-paved lane that climbs in steps. The church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, whose structure dates back to 1310, keeps a seventeenth-century baptismal font and a funerary slab from 1627. A little further on, the church of Santa Maria della Candelora holds a marble Madonna and Child from 1564. In a niche among the lower houses there is an eighteenth-century fresco of Saint Christopher, and in the 1890 presbytery a room is dedicated to Gaetano Catanoso, parish priest here from 1904 to 1921 and proclaimed a saint in 2005.

Around the churches, the restored houses hold workshops that genuinely work: hand-painted terracotta, wood turning, loom weaving, macramé, soaps and bergamot essence. There is also a wine bar serving local food. The houses still in ruins have been left as they were, and it is the contrast between the two that gives the village its face.

The view, Edward Lear and the Sentiero dell'Inglese

From the higher points of the village the eye drops onto the torrent and the terraced slopes, then widens to the Ionian coast and, on clear days, to Sicily. It is the same cut of landscape that struck Edward Lear, the English painter and writer who in the summer of 1847 walked across southern Calabria with his friend John Proby. One of his Pentedattilo drawings carries an inscription dated 1 September 1847, and the plates from that journey ended up in Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria, published in London in 1852.

That diary gave rise to the Sentiero dell'Inglese, a walking route of about 110 kilometres in seven stages that starts precisely at Pentedattilo and reaches Staiti, passing through Bagaladi, Amendolea, Gallicianò, Bova, Roghudi Vecchio and Palizzi. If you do not have days to spare, the short loop around the crag up to the Sant'Antonio hamlet gives you the five fingers seen from behind.

How to get to Pentedattilo and how long to allow

By car: the A2 motorway ends at Reggio Calabria, from where you take the SS106 Ionian road south and exit at Annà, just before Melito di Porto Salvo, then follow the inland road for about four kilometres. From Reggio Calabria it is around thirty kilometres, a little over forty minutes. By train, the useful stations are Melito di Porto Salvo and Annà on the Ionian line, and from there you need a taxi. Reggio Calabria airport is about twenty kilometres away, Lamezia Terme roughly 156, an hour and forty by motorway.

You park below the village and walk up. For the alleys and the two churches allow an hour and a half to two hours; add the loop around the crag and it becomes half a day. Wear closed shoes with a grippy sole, because the paving is uneven and the stone steps are smooth. In summer late afternoon is the right time: the rock catches the light and the heat lets go.

What to see nearby

Pentedattilo takes half a day, so it is worth pairing with something else. The most natural combination is Reggio Calabria, half an hour north: the seafront, the National Archaeological Museum with the Riace Bronzes and the town centre all fit comfortably into the same day. Eastwards, instead, you enter the Grecanic area proper, where Bova sits on a hilltop at 820 metres and the Greek of Calabria is still a living language.

If you climb inland from the coast you reach the Aspromonte, with its beech woods and trails above a thousand metres. And if you want to swap the Ionian for the Tyrrhenian, forty minutes is enough: Scilla and the Costa Viola are on the other side of the tip, with a completely different sea and the houses of Chianalea standing in the water.

Where to stay: holiday homes on the Reggio coast

Pentedattilo is a visit of a few hours, not a place to sleep. The right base is the coast: from a house on the Costa Viola or in the Reggio area you get here in under an hour, and in the same holiday you keep the sea, the inland villages and the city museums together.

A holiday home leaves you your own rhythm: you come back late after sunset on the crag with no kitchen timetable, you make breakfast when you like and you hang your swimsuit on the balcony. One-bedroom flats and two-bedroom apartments work well for families and for two couples travelling together, with a proper kitchen and room for the luggage that a hotel room does not have. Look at the houses available on your dates and send us a direct enquiry: we answer you ourselves, with no middlemen.

Frequently asked questions about Pentedattilo

Is Pentedattilo still a ghost village?
Not entirely. It was abandoned in 1971, but since the 1980s the work of volunteers and of the Pro Pentedattilo association has brought back artisan workshops, a wine bar and cultural spaces. Next to the restored houses, the ruined ones remain as they were.

How far is Pentedattilo from Reggio Calabria?
About thirty kilometres, a little over forty minutes by car: the SS106 southbound, the Annà exit, then four kilometres inland.

Is there an entrance fee?
No, entry is free and you walk around on your own. Local environmental guides run guided visits by booking.

How long does a visit take?
An hour and a half to two hours for the alleys, the two churches and the viewpoints. With the loop around the crag up to the Sant'Antonio hamlet it becomes half a day.

What shoes do I need?
Closed shoes with a grippy sole. The paving is uneven, the stone steps are worn and some stretches climb steeply: smooth sandals and flip-flops do not work here.

Can you visit Pentedattilo with children?
Yes, the walk is short and technically easy, but it is all uphill on rough ground: a pushchair will not get through, so use a carrier or a child backpack.

Why is the rock called that?
Pentedattilo comes from the Greek pénte dáktylos, five fingers: that is the number of sandstone pinnacles into which Monte Calvario splits behind the village.