Diamante: The Calabrian village decorated with 300 murals

The seafront promenade from which you can look out and be enchanted by the beauty of the crystalline seabed, the eight kilometers of beach, the houses overlooking the sea, the narrow streets where you can lose yourself discovering breathtaking views. In the background, the wonderful island of Cirella, whose seabed is dominated by silvery Posidonia. It's impossible not to fall in love with Diamond, in Calabria, a true pearl of the enchanting Riviera dei Cedri: in 2017, one of the "The most beautiful seaside villages in Italy".

Five thousand inhabitants in the province of Cosenza, Diamante is undoubtedly one of the most visited villages in Calabria: more and more tourists are choosing to spend their holidays there, surrounded by the scent of sea and pampered by the delicacies of local cuisine. Despite this, Diamante has managed to preserve and maintain its ancient fishing village charm over time.

And not only that, there is something that makes this Calabrian village a truly unique and special place: the murals that decorate the walls of the houses in the historic center and that tell a story that is almost forty years long.

In 1981, Nani Razzetti, a Milanese painter who lived in Diamante by adoption, had the brilliant idea of revitalizing the town's historic center, transforming it into a veritable open-air museum. This idea, approved and supported by the mayor at the time, Evasio Pascale, transformed the town's face, breathing new life into it. In June of that year, more than 80 artists, both Italian and foreign, arrived in Diamante and began adorning every corner with images, scenes, and quotations that depict and tell the story of the Calabrian town and the entire region.

Every alleyway tells a story: there are fishermen returning from a day of fishing, fathers and sons busy mending their nets and passing down their skills and crafts, kings and colorful castles dedicated to the little ones, capable of bringing light and color to the village walls. Just look around or raise your eyes and you'll be enchanted.

Among the murals the most suggestive is the mosaic one made in via Alfieri, on one of the walls of the Mother Church and which retraces the ancient history of Calabria, from the discovery of the graffiti of the "Papasidero Bull” until today. In October 1999 it was then enriched with the image of the Immaculate Conception.

Year after year, the initial murals have been joined by many new works, including street art created as part of the "OSA Street Art" project, which since 2017 has transformed the village walls into canvases. All the murals, created using various techniques, undergo periodic restoration to maintain their original charm. The initial works are now well over thirty years old.

In past years, for example, the "Save the Murals" initiative was promoted, during which the young internationally renowned artist Antonino Perrotta, from Diamante, oversaw the restoration of the mural created in 2005 in Piazza Mancini by Maestro Pino le Fauci, for the 88th Giro d'Italia, which also featured Diamante. The mural, further enhanced by Maestro Le Fauci in 2011, draws on the sporting event to tell the history and legends of Diamante and the nearby island of Cirella.

The feeling you get walking through Diamante is that of reading a story made up of people, scenes of everyday life, events, and traditions. A project that, day after day and mural after mural, has revitalized and enhanced the Calabrian village, also combating depopulation.

There's an Italy made up of unique places rich in history, culture, and traditions that is struggling to survive. Thanks to its murals, Diamante has transformed a limitation—the risk of depopulation—into a new opportunity for its residents and tourists.

Today, Diamante is a veritable open-air art gallery: over 300 murals decorate the village, and it is part of the Italian Association of Painted Villages, founded in Rome in 1994 to connect all the Italian organizations that own, promote, and enhance the artistic and pictorial heritage, both ancient and recent, created on the exterior walls of homes.

Diamante: the village decorated with 300 murals

Read also:

Want to see a selection of our news?