Textile producing is the craft activity best known and most interesting of Cariati. It has a very ancient origin and was imported from eastern places by those people who managed to return to the country after being deportated in Turkey, following a number of pirate raids during the fifteenth century. According to a popular legend, very dear to people of Cariati, the art of weaving was introduced in our city by a young woman, Laura, in 1544, during the siege of the pirate Dim Khir called Barbarossa, she was captured and brought to Constantinoply where she became the favorite of the Sultan. The beautiful Laura lived for many years in eastern land, there she learned the wonderful art of weaving rugs and blankets of different shining coluors on the frame, but her thoughts were always turned towards the beloved land of Calabria,to her Cariati. On the death of the Sultan, when she was finally able to return to Cariati, Laura made known to her villagers the wonderful art of weaving that’s still a boast of a 'craftship in Cariati. Weavers were once many in Cariati and produced rugs, tapestries and carpets, brightly coloured and very intense with special designs: baskets, bouquets roses, stars,rhombs and other designs that recall the Magna- Greek art. The visit to the weaving workshop of Mrs.Maria Russo, a skilled weaver of Cariati and interview has led to a complete knowledge of this wonderful art in via of extinction.
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