The Belvedere district
The urban area of Nicastro formed by the adjoining and overlapping districts of Belvedere (above) and Torre (below) developed between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
From the Anonymous view of 1847 we can see that by that time the two districts had already fully developed: in the Belvedere district in particular, the view shows the building known as the "ex Ginnasio" (former grammar school), Palazzo Caracciolo-Mazza and the neoclassical Palazzo della Sottointendenza (later the Sub-Prefecture).
Palazzo Caracciolo-Mazza is of particular importance, so called because its foundation is believed to date to the sixteenth century and attributed to the Caracciolo counts, at that time feudal lords of Nicastro, and because it later passed into the ownership of the Mazza family.
Traces of the imposing structure remain in the present-day S. Tarcisio complex, but it is above all its dominant position that allows the eye to range from here across the whole historic centre and the surrounding landscape, as far as the sea: it is easy, then, to understand why the palace was known as the "Bel Vedere", a name that later extended to the district that grew up around it.
As with the Torre district, part of what is now the Belvedere district belonged in the seventeenth century to the Poor Clares: after acquiring the ruined Palazzo Caracciolo in 1639 from the magnificent Francesco Oliverio, they later resold it to Gaspare Mazza, originally from Serrastretta, together with the land still known today as "Orto di Mazza", corresponding to the present-day park of the former gymnasium of the nearby Ginnasio.
From the records of the Pastoral Visitation carried out in 1769 by the Apostolic Visitor Paolino Pace, we know of the existence of a small church dedicated to S. Gaetano, a dependency of the Cathedral and now vanished, in the district "vulgo dicta Bel Vedere", near the house of D. Saverio and the Reverend D. Melchiorre Mazza.
Palazzo Panariti (19th-20th century)
Palazzo Panariti is another significant building in the urban fabric of the Belvedere district. Historic home to several of the town's schools, in the 1930s the building housed the Liceo and, from the 1953/54 school year until the 1960s, the state-recognised Istituto Magistrale (teacher training college), named after Flora Panariti, a secondary school student who died prematurely in 1943.
The palace was owned by Commendatore Francesco Panariti, originally from Puglia, director of the local Excise Office and a figure particularly active during the Fascist period as an organiser of cultural and folk initiatives. Contemporary accounts report that Comm. Panariti arranged for modern electrically powered festive lights (replacing acetylene ones) to be brought to Nicastro for the first time from the town of Putignano, in the province of Bari, for the feast of S. Antonio in 1937.
The building, now municipal property, was dedicated in 2015 to Carlo Rambaldi, the renowned cinematic special effects artist and winner of three Academy Awards (for films such as King Kong, Alien and E.T.).
After a period of disuse, restoration and refurbishment projects were launched from 2024, making the building usable once again. It now hosts educational and training activities focused on digital information and communication technologies, in partnership with local training bodies.