Isola di Capo Rizzuto
The village of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, is 17 km far from Crotone and only 5 km far from the Hotel Villaggio S.Antonio; it is located 196 meters above sea level and has 13,810 inhabitants.
Its wonderful location, at the edge of a shelf near the sea, and reclamation work, have recently
developed tourism, giving the country a strong impulse, such as to build recently hotels and campings on the sea.
It seems thnat the foundation of the town was wanted by one of the sisters of Priamo, Astiochena, who wanted a town near the Capo Rizzuto promontory, near the temple of Hera.
Some scholars derive the name "Insula" from the existence of some islands overlooking the three promontories "Japigi", identified in Capo Rizzuto, Capo Cimiti and Punta Le Castella, so named by the presence of the legendary Japyx, son of Daedalus, one of the most talented artist of ancient Greece.
Other scholars still derive the name of Isola from the fact that "Insula" was the place where those who lived there enjoyed asylum. The emperor of Constantinople, Leo VI (886-911), raised Isola Di Capo Rizzuto to a episcopal headquarters. The diocese and therefore the town is indicated in Byzantine documents with the Greek term "Aesylon" which means "sacred place", where man can not be persecuted. With the transformation of Greek writing into the Latin one, the name became Isola. With Royal Decree of 22 January 1863, he definitively assumed the current name: Isola Di capo Rizzuto. Many findings dating back to the classical age have been found in the territory (between the VI and the IV century BC).
You can still see in Isola: conspicuous remains of the 16th century fortified complex, of the Feudal Castle (in via S. Marco) built in the medieval period, enlarged in 1549, by the feudatory, Neapolitan, Giovanni Antonio Ricca; remains of spurred angular quadrilateral towers; relics of the walls of the perimeter curtain with pivellini; the Gate of the medieval village, surmounted by a turret of the rear clock.