Marina De Franceschini,  Giuseppe Veneziano

Atti XVII covegno SIA Roma 2017 Ex Oriente: Mithra and the others. Astronomical contents in the cults of Eastern origin in ancient Italy and Western Mediterranean (E Antonello ed.) Padova 2021, pp- 205-223

This paper is about the astronomical orientation of the ancient Hermitage of Saint Elias at Curinga (in the Italian province of Catanzaro) which has been hypothesized by the local scholars Salvatore Mongiardo, Cesare and Maria Cesareo, Felice Campora; they asked the authors of this article to test and confirm their theory. 

The authors took care of the different aspects of the question: Giuseppe Veneziano made astronomical calculations, Marina De Franceschini studied the architecture of the building and its symbolic meaning. The Hermitage has an equinoctial orientation, but its illuminations (hierophanies) take place on Summer solstice; this is similar to what we discovered few years ago in the Mausoleum of Hadrian at Rome (today’s Castel Sant’Angelo). 

The cult and iconography of Saint Elias show a continuity and a connection with ancient pagan cults, proving that the language of images and signs evolved throughout the centuries, but kept its primary and ancestral significance, linked to the symbolic dualisms of all times: Life & Death, Light & Darkness, Water & Fire.