Cosenza’s cathedral was consecrated on 30 January 1222 in the presence of Emperor Frederick II, who gave the city a jeweled cross reliquary, the Stauroteca, now kept in the diocesan museum.
Rebuilt after the earthquake of 1184, it keeps its Romanesque-Gothic frame beneath later Baroque and Neo-Gothic additions. Inside, look for the Gothic tomb of Isabella of Aragon, queen of France, in the left transept, and the twelfth-century Byzantine icon of the Madonna del Pilerio, the city’s protector. UNESCO recognized the cathedral in 2011 as a place that bears witness to a culture of peace. It stands on Piazza Duomo, at the heart of the old town above the Busento river.
