Cosenza is home to the University of Calabria and is as much a college town as anything else — albeit one with an interesting heart of Medieval architecture and a history that dates back to the time of antiquity. There are lots of museums here along with a half-dozen or so annual festivals. Three of the more interesting sights are the town's cathedral, Hohenstaufen Castle, and the Museo All'aperto Bilotti.

Cosenza Cathedral

Most likely constructed in the eleventh or twelfth century, the cathedral in Cosenza has seen its share of rebuilding and modification over the years. An earthquake in the 1180s destroyed so much of the original church that reconstruction was not completed until the 1220s. In the early 1700s, a new Baroque superstructure was created, destroying the original. In the early 1800s, the fa çade was changed to neo-Gothic style.

What stands today is thus a hodgepodge of various men's visions. It's worth seeing if you have even the slightest interest in architectural history and how periods of design can be brought together (effectively or ineffectively) into one structure. And the fact that the cathedral stands in the center of Cosenza's old city makes it an easy landmark for touring the rest of the area.

Hohenstaufen Castle

Believed to have been built around the year 1000, the Castello Svevo, also known as Hohenstaufen Castle, lost its original looks at the command of Roman Emperor Frederick II, who is said to have restored it in the early thirteenth century so that it could serve as a prison for one of his sons, Henry. (Henry was the name of Frederick's first child by his first wife, as well as the name of his third child by his third wife. There were mistresses, as well, but none of those known children were named Henry.)

You can still see some of the modifications that were made for imprisonment if you tour the castle today. Interestingly, Frederick II was a great patron of science and the arts during his time in power, so the castle at one time may have held some impressive treasures from those arenas.

Museo All'aperto Bilotti

Museo All'aperto Bilotti, also known as Museo MAB, is Cosenza's open-air sculpture museum. It's literally a sculpture garden in a street, named for collector Carlo Bilotti, an Italian-American cosmetics and perfume entrepreneur who donated the pieces to the city for the good and enjoyment of residents and tourists alike.

The works are not insignificant; some of the artists represented include Surrealist masters Salvador Dali and Giorgio de Chirico. Those artists had become friends of Bilotti's over the years, as had other prominent artists including Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. As Bilotti neared his death in 2006, he decided to release a good deal of his private collection for public use in Rome and Cosenza, which was his birthplace. (There is a Museo Carlo Bilotti in Rome, housed in what used to be a sixteenth-century palace. Bilotti paid for its renovations in order to create the museum to showcase his collected artworks, and the doors opened in 2006.)