Ardore is a small Locride reality, divided into four hamlets.

The foundation of Ardore dates back Neolithic, as evidenced by the dating of hunting gear found here.

The name could refer to the valorous nature of its inhabitants or to the Greek verb meaning “wet”, ehich fits in the blue and crystalline sea.

In Ardore one can witness traces of the past: from the Greek colonization to the Roman age.
The ancient village is perched on a hill for defensive purposes, where in 1600 its first duke, Orazio I Gambacorta, erected a squareshaped castle surrounded by four towers, which includes a prison , militia quarters, cellars and stables.

Bombile

To visit the remarkable Sanctuary of the Madonna della Grotta, located in the hamlet of Bombile. To access the temple, unique in its kind, you had to walk a staircase of 145 steps, through which you entered the cave carved into the sandstone of a steep wall.

Augustinian hermit

He was an Augustinian hermit, Friar Jacopo da Tropea, in 1507 the first to dig the cave where he could take refuge to devote himself to meditation and prayer and subsequently, in 1525 a church was built and consecrated, where the statue of the Virgin was placed inside with the Child, and in that guarded place.

The work, in white Carrara marble and attributed to the Gagini school, was recovered after the 2007 landslide. The statue was placed in the parish church of the Holy Spirit of Bombile.

Neapolitan noble style

An attraction of religious character is the cathedral dedicated to St. Leonardo located in Piazza Umberto I, which contains a Neapolitan noble style altar dating back to XVIII.