Cerisano

Cerisano is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy.

History

According to some hypotheses, the town was originally founded by the Oenotrians (Enotri), an ancient population of pre-Romans, originating around the fifteenth century BC. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Oenotrians are the oldest settlers from Greece. In this account, Cerisano would have been known to the Greeks as the Citerium, Citerion. In ancient times, the surrounding region took its name from the Oenotrians, comprising the current southern Campania, part of Basilicata, and Calabria.

The first surviving written records mentioning Cerisano date back to 1247 when the comune is first included in tax records, along with documentation declaring Cerisano as belonging to the Angevin faction of Schiucchi. In the feudal period, Cerisano was under the jurisdiction of various lords, including Andrea Sersale, followed by Carluccio de Martino di Massa and his son Petrillo. Later, under the rule of Louis III of Anjou, there was a brief period of autonomy when Cerisano was owned by the De Matera, followed by the Sanseverino family of Bisignano. The latter transformed Cerisano into a military outpost. In 1489, the comune was entrusted to Royal Captain Gaspare Firrao, from Cosenza, and then to Bernardino de Marinis Gragnano.