PURE CALABRIA / LAMEZIA TERME
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Home / Notable people of Lamezia Terme · Open the map ↗PEOPLE, WORK AND CONNECTIONS
Stories of historical and contemporary figures connected with Nicastro, Sambiase, Sant’Eufemia and the Lametino area.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
1828–1894 · nato a Sambiase
Born in Sambiase, he was a celebrated Italian patriot, revolutionary and politician. He took part in the Sapri expedition with Carlo Pisacane and, after Italian unification, served as Minister of the Interior under the Historical Left.
avvocato e politico
A lawyer and politician, he is considered the founding father of Lamezia Terme. He proposed and promoted the law that created the new unified municipality in 1968.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
1924–1965 · poeta, nato a Sambiase
Born in Sambiase, he was one of the leading poets of twentieth-century Southern Italy. His profound, melancholic poetry explored contrasts, hardship and love for his homeland.
1834–1884 · filosofo, nato a Sambiase
Born in Sambiase, he was a distinguished philosopher and historian of philosophy. He taught at leading Italian universities, including Bologna and Naples, and helped spread idealist thought and secular culture after unification.
1833–1889 · sacerdote, nato a Nicastro
Born in Nicastro, he was a learned priest, man of letters, literary critic and poet. Esteemed beyond the region, he is remembered for important studies of aesthetics and literature.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
1734–1820 · pittore, nato a Nicastro
A celebrated eighteenth-century painter born in Nicastro. His religious paintings and frescoes adorn churches and cathedrals across Calabria, leaving a lasting mark on regional sacred art.
1896–1975 · pittore e scrittore futurista, nato a Nicastro
Born in Nicastro, he was an important Futurist painter and writer. A leading figure of the movement’s second wave and close to Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, he brought the artistic avant-garde into Calabrian culture.
1960 · regista e sceneggiatore, nato a Lamezia Terme
A film and television director and screenwriter, his work includes the Golden Globe-nominated film La corsa dell’innocente, the Hollywood adaptation Romeo and Juliet (2013), and Rai series such as Padre Pio and I bastardi di Pizzofalcone.
1985 · attore, regista e poeta
Actor, director and poet with an international career. Among his high-profile film appearances is Ferrari (2023), directed by Michael Mann.
1925–2012 · visse e morì a Lamezia Terme
The legendary “father of E.T.” won three Academy Awards for special effects for King Kong, Alien and E.T. Born in Vigarano Mainarda, Ferrara, he chose Lamezia Terme as his final home. Connected to Calabria through his wife Bruna, he lived in Lamezia for the last decade of his life and died here in 2012. The city honours him through the Carlo Rambaldi Cultural Foundation and a school named after him.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
professore di informatica · Università della Calabria
A distinguished computer science professor at the University of Calabria and internationally recognised researcher in new technologies. He is a national institutional reference for digital transformation and coordinated the government expert committee that defined Italy’s national AI strategy.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
1978 · scrittore, giornalista e attivista
Writer, journalist and activist, he directs the Terra! association. He is a leading Italian voice against labour exploitation and opaque food supply chains, and the author of influential investigative books.
1971 · poeta e saggista
An acclaimed poet and essayist whose work has been translated into several languages. His writing carries forward the Lametino area’s poetic tradition.
storico e saggista del Lametino
A respected historian and essayist, he has devoted his career to researching and communicating the historical, social and anthropological roots of the Lametino area and Reventino district.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
origini familiari a Sambiase
The world-famous pop star was not born in Lamezia Terme, but has a strong family connection to the area. Her maternal family is said to originate from former Sambiase, making her arguably the best-known person of Lametino roots worldwide.
origini familiari a Lamezia Terme
Alicia Keys is not the only international celebrity with a family link to the Lametino area. Little Steven (Steven Van Zandt), legendary guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and actor famous for playing Silvio Dante in The Sopranos, has family roots in Lamezia Terme. His maternal grandfather, whose original surname was Lento, emigrated to the United States from the Lametino area.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
1015–1085 · condottiero normanno
The famous Norman commander considered the Lametino area a strategic hub for controlling southern Italy. In 1062 he founded the great Benedictine Abbey of Sant’Eufemia, one of the region’s most powerful religious, economic and military centres.
1194–1250 · legato al Castello di Nicastro
The Stupor Mundi was deeply attached to this land. He extensively renovated and enlarged Nicastro’s Norman-Swabian Castle, turning it into a formidable fortress. Frederick II stayed there several times, kept his imperial treasure there and used it as a hunting centre, one of his great passions. The castle also became known as the prison of his rebellious son, Henry VII of Germany.
1042–1099 · legato all’Abbazia di Sant’Eufemia
Before becoming the pope who called the First Crusade, he visited and stayed for a long time at Sant’Eufemia Abbey, consecrated it personally and made it a key point in medieval European geopolitics.
1568–1639 · soggiornò a Nicastro
The great Calabrian philosopher and writer, author of The City of the Sun, lived for a time in Nicastro, where he took the Dominican habit at the local Dominican convent, a crucial place in his early intellectual and theological formation.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
On 4 July 1806, the Lametino plain, near the famous Bastione di Malta at Sant’Eufemia, was the theatre of the Battle of Maida (known to the French as the Battle of Sant’Eufemia). The battle was so important to the British Empire that the famous London districts of Maida Vale and Maida Hill were named in its honour. These were the principal figures who lived and fought in Lamezia:
1759–1815 · generale britannico
On 4 July 1806, the plain near the Bastione di Malta at Sant’Eufemia became the setting for the Battle of Maida, also known to the French as the Battle of Sant’Eufemia. The victory was so significant for Britain that London’s Maida Vale and Maida Hill were named in its honour. Sir John Stuart led about 5,000 British soldiers and defeated Napoleon’s troops; King George III made him Earl of Maida.
1771–1814 · generale francese
A skilled French general in Napoleon’s army, he had already distinguished himself in the Egyptian campaign. He underestimated the British forces camped near Lamezia and ordered a frontal attack that proved disastrous, forcing him to retreat toward Catanzaro.
1771–1806 · brigante e militare borbonico
The famous brigand and Bourbon loyalist worked closely with Stuart’s British forces during those months, leading Calabrian popular resistance against the French occupiers after the battle on the plain.
PERSONAGGI / LAMEZIA
1918–2012 · origini familiari a Sambiase
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro had direct family roots in Sambiase, now part of Lamezia Terme. Although he was born in Novara, where his father Baron Guglielmo Scalfaro had moved for work in 1914, the family’s aristocratic house came from Calabria, specifically Sambiase. The old Scalfaro family received the baronial title from Gioacchino Murat in 1814 through ancestor Raffaele Aloisio Scalfaro, then commander of the Provincial Legion of Calabria Ultra. Scalfaro’s deep Calabrian ties also touched his private life: in 1943 he married Maria Inzitari, whose family came from Arena in the province of Vibo Valentia.
Biographical source ↗ · Genealogical source for the baronial title ↗
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