Gerace - a small picturesque town in the province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region of Calabria .  It is located 10 km from the ancient town of Locri on top of a 500-meter cliff .  The town's name comes from the Greek word for sparrow hawk .  According to legend, the first inhabitants of these places, to flee from the attack of the Saracens in 915, the year followed the sparrow hawk, which led them into the mountains .  However, archaeological finds made on the territory of modern Gerace, say that in this area people lived in the Neolithic period .  Later, in the heyday of the ancient Greek colony of Locri, the settlement was on the hill, and in Roman times here was located a military garrison .  After the conquest of Byzantine Italy in the 6th century, Gerace became the administrative, military and religious center, which received the name of Santa Chiriaka .  And in the 11th century in Calabria were Normans, and the city became the center of one of the Norman principalities .  Its symbol was the castle Hauteville (Italian Castello Altavilla) .  At the end of the 13th century, during the so-called Sicilian Supper, Gerace was occupied by the Aragonese admiral Roger Lauria, who transformed the city into their fiefdom, but just half a century later, Gonzalo de Cordoba again made his Duchy .  Only in 1806 with the abolition of feudal rights Gerace became a provincial capital .  Still later, in the 19th century, it was built on the coast of Marina district Gerace .

The main attractions today can be called the ruins of a Norman castle that once stood on the top of a cliff. Of particular interest in tourists it is perfectly preserved medieval center of Gerace, where once there were 128 churches. They are preserved only part of the: Church of San Francesco of the 13th century with the priceless baroque altar, the Greek church of Santa Maria del Mastro end of the 11th century, the tiny church of San Giovannelli of the 10th century and the majestic Norman Cathedral, one of the biggest in Calabria . Inside, it consists of a central nave and two aisles, separated by the 26th columns, brought from the ancient temple of Locri.