Gerace is a small picturesque town in the province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria. It is located 10 km from the ancient city of Locri on the top of a 500-meter cliff. The city's name comes from the Greek word meaning of Sparrowhawk. According to legend, the first inhabitants of these places who were fleeing from the attacks of the Saracens in 915, the year, followed by the hawk, the Sparrow-hawk, which led them into the mountains. However, archaeological findings on the territory of modern Gerace, suggests that in these places people lived in the Neolithic. Later, in the heyday of the ancient Greek colony of Locri, the settlement remained on the hill, and in Roman times it housed a military garrison. After the Byzantine conquest of Italy in the 6th century Gerace became the administrative, military and religious center, which received the name of Santa Ciriaca. And in the 11th century in Calabria appeared Normans, and the city became the centre of one of the Norman principalities. Its symbol was the castle of Otila (Italian Castello Altavilla). At the end of the 13th century, during the so-called Sicilian Vespers, Gerace was occupied by the Aragonese Admiral Roger Lauria, which turned the city into his fief, but only half a century later Gonzalo de Cordoba again made it a Principality. Only in 1806, the year with the abolition of feudal rights Gerace became a provincial capital. Still later, in the 19th century, the coast was built district Gerace Marina.

The main attractions of the city today can be called the ruins of the Norman castle that once stood on the cliff top. Of special interest for tourists is well-preserved medieval centre Gerace, where there were 128 churches. Are preserved only a part: the Church of San Francesco of the 13th century with the priceless Baroque altar, the Greek Church of Santa Maria del Mastro the end of the 11th century, a tiny Church of San Giovannello the 10th century and the magnificent Norman Cathedral, one of the largest in Calabria. Inside it consists of a Central nave and two side aisles, separated from each other 26-th columns, brought from the ancient temple Locri.