The history of the city of Rende is linked to the legend of Arintha, a city founded by the Enotri in 520 BC.
Rende was fortified in the 11th century by the Normans, and was ceded by Robert Guiscard to the then bishop-count of Cosenza.
Both Pope Innocent IV on 7 October 1254 and Pope Clement IV on 8 June 1268 confirmed to Pietro Ruffo the donation of the lands and castles of Rende, obtained from the Emperor Frederick II of Swabia and his son Corrado.
However, there were several feudal lords who alternated at the helm of the county of Rende, in addition to the Ruffo family there were the Scaglione family, the della Noce and the Adorno of Genoa, which included the territories of Arcavacata, Domanico, Mendicino, Carolei, Fiumefreddo, Marano, Falconara and San Fili. In 1531 Rende was elevated to the dignity of marquisate under Charles V and entrusted to the then governor of Cosenza Hernando d'Alarcon della Valle. The marquisate later passed to the Alarcon Mendoza family who dominated Rende until 2 August 1806.
The oldest part presents the typical signs of the medieval village, which from the feudal castle built on the Vaglio hill, seat of the municipal administration until 2011, currently undergoing renovation work, branches out through the presence of important noble palaces such as the Zagarese palaces, home to the Civic Museum, Vanni, Basile, Perugini, Pastore, Vitari, home to the MAON Museum of 19th and 20th Century Arts, Vercillo and its numerous churches: Santa Maria Maggiore of medieval foundation, even if the current building is the result of subsequent architectural interventions also due to numerous earthquakes.
The interior has three naves with the High Altar in polychrome stucco, and in the side naves twelve chapels decorated with stucco from the 18th century.
The interior offers numerous works of art mostly by the painter Santanna, a pulpit in stucco and wood from 1797 made by Cristoforo Santanna himself, Raffaele De Bartolo and Matteo Morrone also author of the wooden confessionals. There are numerous processional statues and sacred vestments and silverware of eighteenth-century workmanship; The Sanctuary of Maria SS. di Costantinopoli erected in the 18th century on the remains of a chapel dedicated to San Sebastiano.
On May 15, 1978, by decision of the Archbishop of Cosenza Mons. Enea Selis, the church was elevated to the honors of Sanctuary. The Latin cross church has a gabled façade with a triangular tympanum. The Baroque interior contains eighteenth-century works by Santanna, a dome frescoed in tempera by the Rende artist Achille Capizzano in 1949 depicting the Virgin of Constantinople in glory and other works by Donato Magli and Giovanni Greco.
The high altar in polychrome marble from 1775 houses the altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception in Glory by Cristoforo Santanna with interventions by Pascaletti on the faces of the cherubs.
There are numerous sacred vestments and silverware; the church of SS. Rosario completed in 1779 by Raffaele De Bartolo with the help of his brother Giuseppe, in classic Baroque style with a facade in pink tuff from Mendicino.
The Latin cross interior is decorated with stucco and paintings by Santanna. Inside the building are kept some vestments and an organ on the choir by Carlo Mancini, dated 1772; Church of San Michele Arcangelo, known as the Church of the Retreat, built in the Norman era, was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1638 and rebuilt in 1715.
The church complex is laid out in a Greek cross plan where there are four wooden altars, three of which are completely gilded. The interior of the dome painted by the Rende artist Donato Magli depicts the fall of the rebel angels dating back to the early 1950s.
There are numerous other churches located in the historic center of Rende: Santa Maria delle Nevi, Maria SS. dell’Assunta, San Francesco d’Assisi now a convent of the Cloistered Nuns of the Order of the Poor Clares, San Giovanni, Sant’Antonio Abate and the SS. Vergine della Pietà.
