Nido di Seta

 

Silk. A little word but concise, sweet and disruptive.  Behind these four alphabetic signs lie centuries of history, and not only. Silk is known as a luxury fabric, used to make clothes, garments and damasks for rich and powerful people. But its biological origin is very simple. Thanks to this wonder of nature, this fibre is produced by silkworms, (caterpillars) which during the period of metamorphosis build a cocoon to protect their “transformation” against external agents. Only a few of the approximately two hundred breeds produce a usable fibre, and only one (Bombyx mori) can be bred by  man.

 

Since the 12th century our peninsula has been  the biggest European producer of silk. Especially in the Calabrian region, the production of the gold thread was very flourishing. The city of Catanzaro was considered the capital of silk, and around it a  productive circuit developed  mapping out  the “ Calabrian silk route”, a corridor that linked the Tyrrhenian coast to the Ionic coast. In the surrounding countries peasant families  produced mulberries and  raw silk  which was woven in the handicraft boutiques in Catanzaro.

According to  some historical sources it is supposed that the name of the region capital comes from the Greek verb “Katartizen”, which means to prepare, to tailor and also to weave ( the silk weavers were called “Katartarioi”). The silk art reached the height of maximum splendour between 16^th  and 17^th centuries . The fame of the silk masters from Catanzaro had a wide echo that spread up in France, where these masters were called to teach the technique of weaving in Lyon.

Consulting the State Archives of Catanzaro we found that, by the end of 18^th century, the San Floro farm families, had bred millions of silkworms producing around 1.400 Kgs of silk cocoons!

 

In 1998 the municipality of San Floro, in the person of Florino Vivino, that was the Mayor in that period, wanted to rediscover this ancient tradition, starting an experimental project that had a wide national and international echo. On that occasion 3.500 of mulberries threes (Kocusò variety) were planted, as our silkworms eat only mulberry leaves.