Le battaglie di Seminara (1495 e 1503) nei bassorilievi del monumento di Carlo Spinelli

The Battles of Seminara (1495 and 1503) in the Marble Panels of Carlo Spinelli’s Monument

In the strategic territory around the city of Seminara the French and Spanish troops fought two decisive battles in 1495 and 1503, during the secession war of the Kingdom of Naples. Opposing the lines of Bernard Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, and of Gonsalvo Hernandez of Cordoba, these battles were decisive for controlling the entire Calabria Ultra. After a brief overview on these historical events and on the geographical features of the area, this essay dealts with the theatre of the battles as they were represented in four marble panels once decorating the base of the statue of Carlo Spinelli – a monument erected in Seminara in the second half of the 16th century and destroyed by an earthquake in 1783 – which tell us the story of the clashes, from the deployment of the troops up to the fight.