Martone (in Calabrian also referred as Màrtuni) is a comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy. Originating in the 7th and 8th centuries, the comune was founded by Greek Christian monks from the Byzantine Orient. The monks travelled from regions of the Aegean-Levantine to escape Syrian persecution.
Martone, like all of the Locride area, was part of a larger group of comuni, all of which were founded by Greek monks. Residents of these comuni practiced monasticism. The monks are described as:... living solitarily in grottos or in convents bound by the oath of chastity in the communal bond of prayer and work. The emaciated Christ, which the Byzantine iconography had perpetuated for centuries, the suave darkish face of the Mother of God in the icons and frescos and the vast series of Saints, did make their solitude quite serene, did alleviate the heavy toils, and were reawakening the sign of the Orient in the peace of the ascetic dwellings and in the squalor of the grottos.In time, these communities have preserved the monk's existence through art and the influence of faith throughout the region. In the Grotto Territory, which included the municipalities of Mammola, Martone and St. Giovanni di Gerace, there were "small monastic churches, which [...] still preserve traces of Byzantine art". These monasteries:... were not only intended to preserve the relicts of antiquity, as in Vico's expressions, but also a school of agriculture and trades, reforesting, land-reclaiming, cultivating, ploughing, sowing, intensifying the cultivation of olive trees, of vines and chestnuts, building aqueducts and mills, opening the way to the first artisan activities and representing the heralds of the protection of the rural population, in a calamitous and decentralized age which was the Byzantine.
Distance between:
Rome to Martone318 Miles / 511 Kms Milan to Martone614 Miles / 988 Kms Venice to Martone532 Miles / 857 Kms
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