Roots, departures and returns
Guardavalle around the world
Generations of guardavallesi left from here. This page is for anyone with roots in Guardavalle: the story of the departures, told through the numbers, and the tools to find your ancestors in the records.
6,872
inhabitants at the 1951 census, the highest ever recorded
4,004
inhabitants today: roughly 40% fewer than in 1951
1809
the year the civil records available online begin
The departures
The censuses tell of two great seasons of emigration. The first came between Italian unification and the end of the nineteenth century, when Guardavalle fell from 3,604 to 3,367 inhabitants while the ships of the Great Emigration sailed from the South towards the Americas.
The second began after the 1951 peak, the year of the great flood: since then the population has fallen for seven decades in a row, as in much of southern Italy, with suitcases bound mostly for northern Italy and the rest of Europe. In the same years the town's centre of gravity shifted towards the coast, where the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno had built houses, a school and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Today the municipality counts around four thousand inhabitants, and part of Guardavalle's story lives far from here, in the families who left. If yours is one of them, the surname you carry almost certainly has a trace in the town's records.
Tracing your roots
Reconstructing a Guardavalle family tree is easier than it sounds: most of the records are digitised and free. The three places to start:
Antenati portal
The Italian Ministry of Culture's portal publishes the civil records held by the State Archive of Catanzaro: for Guardavalle, nineteenth-century births, marriages and deaths (from 1809), digitised and free to browse online.
antenati.cultura.gov.itFamilySearch
It has a research guide dedicated to Guardavalle and, in its catalogue, the town's civil registration records from 1809 to 1910. Accounts are free; some images can only be viewed at a FamilySearch Center or an affiliate library.
familysearch.orgTown hall and parishes
For more recent records and certificates there is the civil status office of the Comune di Guardavalle. For baptisms, marriages and burials before 1809 you turn to the parish registers, such as those of the Chiesa Matrice di Sant'Agazio.
comune.guardavalle.cz.itMarks of belonging
Four things guardavallesi carry with them, wherever they were born.
A grape named after the town
Guardavalle is a native white grape, listed in Italy's national variety register since 1970 and grown almost only in Calabria: some of the bottles that use it can be found abroad too.
The cardinal of the calendar
Guglielmo Sirleto (1514-1585), born in Guardavalle, was librarian of the Vatican Library and worked on the correction of the calendar that led to the Gregorian reform.
The twelve towers
The defensive system born after the Turkish raids of the sixteenth century, with the Torre Cavallara of 1485: it is why Guardavalle is called the town of the twelve towers.
The relic of Saint Agathius
The patron saint arrived in 1584, when Guardavalle-born bishop Marcello Sirleto brought the relic of the saint's arm from Squillace. His feasts fall on 16 January and 7 May.
If you come back
Many feasts fall on the same dates every year: the patron saint's day on 7 May, the Madonna del Carmine carried out to sea on 18 and 19 July, the Palio del Ciuccio in early September. If you are planning a trip back to your origins, the events calendar and the getting-here page are the two right places to start.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find birth records of ancestors from Guardavalle, Italy?
Nineteenth-century birth, marriage and death records (from 1809) are digitised and free to browse on the Antenati portal, which publishes the holdings of the State Archive of Catanzaro. FamilySearch catalogues Guardavalle's civil records up to 1910.
Are Guardavalle's parish registers available online?
No. For baptisms, marriages and burials before 1809 you need to contact the parishes, such as the Chiesa Matrice di Sant'Agazio in the old town.
Who do I ask for a certificate for citizenship by descent?
Civil status certificates are issued by the registry office of the Comune di Guardavalle. For the requirements and procedures of citizenship by descent, refer to the Italian consulate serving your area.
Sleep a few steps from the beach
Casa Morello is our seafront B&B: apartments of 80 or 160 square metres, made for families and groups.
The B&B