CIRELLA. - Corresponds to C. Vecchia, of which ruins exist on the Tyrrhenian coast, a little south of the mouth of the Lao. It was a city of Brutium, at the extreme north-western border of Calabria with Lucaia. The Tabula Peutingeriana records it at 8,000 paces from Lavinium, and Barrio places it at 7,000 from the Lao. It was destroyed by Hannibal, in the Second Punic War, and rebuilt by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it gave way to the present-day C.

A legend attributes the erection of its bishopric to St. Peter. But St. Gregory the Great writes nothing on this subject, even though he records almost all the dioceses of Brutium. Only in 649 does a Romanus Cerillitanus episcopus subscribe to the Lateran Synod of Pope St. Martin I. There follows a period of absolute silence. It is therefore more than probable that C., like Thurii, Tempsa and other ancient cities of the Calabrian coastline, was destroyed by some incursion of the second half of the 7th century.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: G. Fiore, Calabria illustrata, I, Naples 1691, p. 98; Ughelli, X, p. 158; Lanzoni, p. 211; B. Cappelli, C. Vecchia, in Brutium, 7 (1928).

Francesco Russo

@incollection{ec3_cirella, author = {Russo, Francesco}, title = {Cirella}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1710}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cirella} }

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