What to see in Guardavalle
A village hidden in a hollow to escape pirates, defended by twelve towers and tied to the cardinal who helped fix the calendar.
The village you cannot see from the sea
Guardavalle was probably born in the 9th century, when people from the coast took refuge on the heights to escape Saracen raids. The village was built inside a natural hollow, invisible from the sea and from the surroundings: a defensive choice you still grasp today, because the town only appears once you enter the valley.
The oldest quarter is the Carmine district, which elders still call Casaleju, from the days when Guardavalle was a hamlet of the county of Stilo. From there the town grew in concentric rings up the hill, with cobbled lanes, stone houses and the granite of the Serre mountains, carved by the stonemasons of Serra San Bruno after the 1783 earthquake.
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The twelve towers
After the Turkish raids of 1555 and 1569, the territory equipped itself with a defensive system of twelve towers: hence Guardavalle's nickname, the village of the twelve towers, a kind of Calabrian San Gimignano.
The most famous is the Cavallara Tower at Vinciarello: built in 1485 by the feudal lord Vincio Spedalieri, it has a square plan of about ten metres per side, a battered base, machicolations and a staircase with a small drawbridge on the side facing away from the sea. The ground floor stabled horses, the floor above housed soldiers; in the 18th century it became an oil store. Today it is a private residence, visible from outside.
The cardinal of the calendar
Guardavalle's most illustrious son is Guglielmo Sirleto (1514-1585): librarian of the Vatican Library, among the greatest scholars of Greek and Hebrew of his age, he worked on the Council of Trent and on the correction of the calendar that led to the Gregorian reform.
The Sirleto family left traces all over town: the coat of arms on the portal of the Carmine church, the family palace in the old town, and the relic of Saint Agathius, brought from Squillace in 1584 by bishop Marcello Sirleto, which made the saint Guardavalle's patron.
Churches and palaces
In the old town you will find the Mother Church of Saint Agathius Martyr, rebuilt several times and given neoclassical forms after the 1783 earthquake, and the 17th-century Carmine church, whose frescoed dome is considered the only intact frescoed dome of the Calabrian Seicento. Just outside stands the huge unfinished church of San Carlo Borromeo, begun around 1600 by bishop Fabrizio Sirleto.
Among the noble palaces are Palazzo Criniti (1492), Palazzo Sirleto, Palazzo Spedalieri and the 19th-century Palazzo Falletti with its monolithic granite columns. In Piazza del Carmine you walk under a small triumphal arch.
The waterfall on the Assi stream
Inland, within the Serre Regional Natural Park, the Assi stream forms a waterfall of over ten metres with a natural pool where people swim in summer: locals call it the Guardavalle or Pietracupa waterfall, after the ruins of the old settlement nearby.
You reach it on the Arcadia and Assi trails, on foot or by mountain bike. The riverbed route is of moderate difficulty and the paths are not always marked: bring hiking shoes and, if you are not experienced, a local guide.
And at the Marina
Guardavalle Marina is the modern part of town, which grew above all after the 1951 flood, when Italy's southern development fund built houses, a school and the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli here. Today it is the summer heart of the municipality: the palm-lined promenade, the dune-backed beach and the railway station.
A recent curiosity: in 2025 Guardavalle Marina was the location of the Italian TV show Temptation Island, filmed in a resort on the town's coastline.
A grape named after the town
Guardavalle also gives its name to a native white grape variety, registered in Italy's national catalogue since 1970 and grown almost exclusively in Calabria: it yields straw-coloured wines with a note of toasted hazelnut. Ask for it in local restaurants.
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