Melting time in Calabria's arty Cosenza

In Calabria region's central town of Cosenza there is a sculpture by Salvador Dalì. The work is part of Cosenza's open air museum of modern art and also includes the pieces Hector and Andromache by Giorgio de Chirico and The Bather by Emilio Greco. Dali's sculpture is not of his trademark clock variety, instead it's Saint George and the Dragon, but it's easy for time to melt away amongst the cultural and historical artefacts of Cosenza town.

The Cosentian Academy was founded here and in its early days the town was known as the Athens of Calabria. The Academy was built in 1511 and was one of the first in Europe, propounding study of natural philosophy and humanism but with greater emphasis on the importance of the senses, compared to Aristotle's reliance on reason.

Like all philosophies, flaws in the Cosentian Academy's approach became evident but it was influential in building a science based not only on reason, but also on experimentation and observation of nature.

With a good dose of reason and a spritz of myth, Cosenza is also rumoured to be the burial point of the great Visigoth king, Alaric, who conquered imperial Rome. Using slaves to first divert the water, Alaric, his horse and his treasure are said to be entombed beneath the juncture of Cosenza's two rivers, the Busento and the Crathis.

The Swabian castle, a Romanesque cathedral and the old quarter of the city are all further attractions to the cultural history of the town. The Swabian castle was built by the Saracens and restored by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who then imprisoned his son there. It didn't formally become a prison though until the Bourbon modifications and the entrance hall has the ogival arches in the Gothic style of the French. Quirkily, the architectural ogive of the Bourbon prisons has transmuted to a modern militaristic meaning and an ogive is also the pointed, curved surface of bullets, missiles and aeroplanes.

Meanwhile, in the old quarter, the Palazzo Arnone has become the National Gallery of Cosenza and holds treasured artworks that remind us of full life outside prison.

In a complete cycle, Cosenza's open air modern art and its masterpieces of the past, transport us outside of ourselves and give that glimpse of a different perspective on our own lives and times.