Cosenza - Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

The town known as Consentia was first mentioned in connection with the expedition of the Molossian king Alexander I from Epirus to southern Italy around 330 BC. In 204 BC. it came under Roman rule but was heavily influenced by Greek culture.
In 410, Alaric I, king of the Visigoths, is said to have died in Cosenza after the sack of Rome and was buried with his booty in the riverbed of the Busento. The grave has never been found. German poet von Platen wrote the ballad "Das Grab im Busento" about it in 1820.
After the end of the Roman Empire, Cosenza fell to the Byzantines and was then fiercely disputed between the Lombards and Saracens. In the 7th century, it became the seat of a diocese. In the 11th century the city came under the rule of the Normans. Under the Staufers, it was the seat of the Calabrian court. Subsequently, Cosenza fiercely resisted the rule of the Angevins. In 1461 it was conquered by Roberto Orsini, suffering serious damage. From 1500 it was under the control of Spain.

Today it is a thriving city with a population of about 70.000 and not enough parking lots, so we could not really dive into it.

The current cathedral stands on the same site as an older church, built in the 11th century and almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1184. Construction of the new building began a few years later. The church was consecrated in 1222 in the presence of Emperor Frederick II. In the centuries that followed, numerous renovations were carried out. Restorations were carried out in the 20th century to largely restore the original condition.

Henry (VII) of Germany, son and co-ruler of Emperor Frederick II, is buried in this cathedral. When Henry had allied himself with his father's German enemies and lost them in a battle, Frederick II judged his son in Worms in 1135, dethroned him, imprisoned him, and put him in prison. When he was about to be transferred to another prison in 1142, he fell with his horse and died. Some chroniclers report that this was a suicide attempt.