Cattolica in Stilo and its frescoes

This paper analyses one of the most representative monuments of Byzantine painting in Calabria. It is the church in the town of Stilo, known as Cattolica. It is believed to date from the last quarter of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. After a brief historiographical and architectural analysis of the building, the author considers the chronological and stratigraphical problems of the frescoes preserved inside the church. In this process, he pays particular attention to the Byzantine layers of fresco painting that were done from the end of the tenth to the end of the thirteenth century. An in-depth analysis of the frescoes from the first phase of decoration from the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century has produced valuable results that could lead to collecting fresh data about possible artistic contacts and the routes along which the models traveled between southern Italy and the countries of the Byzantine cultural circle.