The Church of Sant’Adriano: An Example of Multi-Cultural Hybridity in Calabria

This thesis examines the church of Sant’Adriano in the town of San Demetrio Corone in Calabria, Italy, as evidence of the development a multi-cultural society and “third space” during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The church is located in a sparsely populated area with few extant written sources. It was originally built as a domed cross-in-square mid-Byzantine church but altered to a Latin-rite basilica under the sponsorship of Latin-rite patrons in an area populated by Greek-rite Christians living under the authority of Norman patrons. This church is one of many examples of the creation of a “third space” as originally postulated by Homi Bhabha and applied to the Kingdom of Sicily by Hubert Houben. This example, I believe, can be added to the compilation of examples given by Houben but pushes his dating back, prior to the formation of the Kingdom.