Paola

Paola is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Geography The city borders with Montalto Uffugo and San Benedetto Ullano by the west,(on the west) Fuscaldo by(on the north) the north and San Lucido by(on the south) the south. History In July 1555, the Beylerbey of the Mediterranean, Turgut Reis, captured the city. In the middle of World War II, August, 1943, while almost all the citizens of the city were hiding from the air raids by Allied bombers inside the Monastery of St. Francis(Francesco) of Paola, an 80 kg (176 lb) iron-core bomb fell(felt) right in the middle of the agglomeration, but it didn't detonate, a fact widely reported as a miracle. The reason behind the bombing was the presence in the place of the high echelon PNF official Carlo Scorza, second only to Mussolini in these wartime days. Main sights Saint Francis Sanctuary, Del'Annunziata church dome, S. S. Rosario church, Ipogeo di Sotterra church. Saint Francis day party(anniversary) (May 1–4) Personalities Paola is the home of St. Francis of Paola and houses a world famous Catholic sanctuary dedicated to the saint. Transport Paola railway station, opened in 1895, forms part of the Southern Tyrrhenian railway (Salerno–Reggio Calabria), and is also a terminus of a secondary line, the Paola–Cosenza railway. Twin towns Frejus (France, since 1983) See also US Paolana Paola railway station References External links Media related to Paola at Wikimedia Commons (Italian) Paola official website