Sila (mountains)
| Sila | |
|---|---|
 The Sila |
|
| Highest peak | Monte Botto Donato ( 1928 m slm ) |
| location | Cosenza Province , Calabria (Italy) |
| Coordinates | 39 ° 17 ′ N , 16 ° 27 ′ E |
| surface | 1,500 km² |
The Sila is a mountain range in Calabria , Italy . The approximately 1,500 km² mountain region consists of three parts, the Sila Grande , the Sila Piccola and the Sila Greca . The highest mountain (Monte Botto Donato), in the Sila Grande, reaches a height of 1928 meters. There are ski slopes here, as there is considerable amounts of snow in the Sila in the winter months. The rivers Neto , Amato , Corace and Crati have their source in the mountains . The mountains drop steeply in the west towards the city of Cosenza .
history
Already in antiquity there was a mountain range called Sila in the then Bruttium , but it is not known whether it corresponded to the entire region that is called this today. The name is related to the Latin silva = "forest". The mountains are densely forested, with the Laricio pine predominating . The largest town is San Giovanni in Fiore with 17,372 inhabitants.
In 1911 the Società italiana strade ferrate del Mediterraneo commissioned the project for a narrow-gauge railway line Cosenza- Crotone . In 1922 the first short piece went into operation. In 1931 the railway reached the culmination point Camigliatello Silano at 1272 meters above sea level. Construction was not continued until 1949, and kilometer 67 was built in 1956, where San Giovanni in Fiore Stazione was the provisional terminus. In 1997, rail operations were stopped again.
Two dams, Lago Arvo and Lago Ampollino , were built on the Sila plateau in the 1920s . They were part of the carbone bianco , an ambitious power generation project with five dams that were only partially realized.
The name Sila Greca comes from the Albanians who immigrated in the Middle Ages and were of the Orthodox faith. The Romanesque church of San Adriano in San Demetrio Corone has Byzantine elements.
A protected area was created in Calabria as early as 1968; the law establishing the Sila National Park came into force in 2002.
Individual evidence
- ^ Georg Brunold: Building a house. You only meet returnees in Calabria, they were all in Switzerland. However, this does not mean that all emigrants will return. Journal Du No. 722, Tamedia Zurich, December 2001 and January 2002, page 45