One can start, for example, from Piazza Tommaso Campanella, dominated by the fifteenth-century church of San Domenico, characterized by a splendid rose window and numerous works from the late 1700s kept inside.
Going down Corso Telesio, the beating heart of the old city, once called “Via dei Mercanti,” you can admire the Church of the Knights of Malta, Palazzo Tarsia, and the Old City Palace.
This leads to the Cathedral, dating back to the 11th century, which underwent reconstructions and renovations over the centuries, also due to earthquakes.
Not far away is Piazza XV March, which commemorates the insurrectional uprisings of March 15, 1844, around which many monuments revolve, from the central statue of Bernardino Telesio to the Rendano Theater, from the Government Palace to the Cosentina Academy with the Civic Library, one of the most important in southern Italy. On the nearby Via Gaetano Argento stands Palazzo Sersale, where Emperor Charles V was hosted in 1535 during a stay in Cosenza.
Next to it is the Monastery of the Virgins, where numerous 16th-century pictorial masterpieces are preserved. The entire area between Corso Telesio and the so-called Giostra Vecchia, the soul of Renaissance Cosenza, represents an invaluable historical and cultural heritage for the city; architectural gems nest here, such as Palazzo Caselli, Palazzo Orsomarsi, Palazzo Bombini, the Archways of Vaccaro and di Sambiase.
