Cassano al'Ionio

Cassano stands above the plain of the Crati in northern Calabria, where the mountains descend towards the Ionian Sea. Its bishopric traces its origins to the Byzantine recovery of the valley in the ninth century. The town lay in a region where Greek ecclesiastical traditions met the power of the Norman conquerors, who brought the valley under new rulers in the eleventh century. Its cathedral remained the centre of a diocese serving the surrounding towns and countryside.