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Belladonna orange of San Giuseppe

Slow Food Presidium · PAT · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Calabria

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

The belladonna orange takes its name from Villa San Giuseppe, a district in the northern part of the city of Reggio Calabria, at the mouth of the Gallico stream. According to some studies the first records of this variety date from 1863, when Professor Pasquale Giuseppe, in a treatise on agricultural economics devoted to the Reggio citrus area, stressed the excellence of the oranges of Villa San Giuseppe.

They were famous fruit and an important economic resource: until the 1970s they were sold in Italy and exported throughout Europe, as far as Russia, earning them the nickname of the tsars' oranges. In dialect they are called purtuallu longu, and local elders recall that growing them sustained the area's economy, because they paid far better than other crops.

Work in the groves had its own roles: the guardian who estimated the crop and supervised the workers, the pickers, the panarari who carried the full pails from the fields and the taddieri who trimmed each fruit with a knife, leaving the stalk with one or two leaves. Today belladonna is a Slow Food Presidium and is listed among Calabria's traditional products.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Arancia belladonna di San Giuseppe · Masaf — Elenco nazionale dei prodotti agroalimentari tradizionali, XXVI revisione (2026)

Area and method of production

The growing area lies on the valley floor of the Gallico and Catona fiumare riverbeds and runs from the foothills of Aspromonte down to the Strait. Belladonna is a late cultivar: it ripens between April and May, and harvest can stretch into June.

In the past the groves were almost always run by tenant farmers, and the fruit, thanks to its long keeping quality, was stored all summer in the dark, in wooden crates, in sea sand or in beech or poplar sawdust.

In recent decades the lack of a new generation and the fragmentation of holdings, with high costs and slim margins, have led to the abandonment of many groves; some growers have even regrafted their trees to tarocco, a more widespread variety that is easier to sell. The Presidium producers are urging local farmers to take up belladonna cultivation again.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Arancia belladonna di San Giuseppe

How to recognise it

Belladonna is a late, blond-fleshed orange that ripens between April and May, sometimes into June. It is medium-sized, around 200 grams, oval, with thin peel. The flesh is blond, very juicy, with very few seeds.

Its historic strength is its keeping quality: it lasts a long time, so much so that it once stayed good all summer long.

It is excellent eaten fresh, but is also made into marmalades and candied peel.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Arancia belladonna di San Giuseppe

Where to taste it

Belladonna oranges are found in Villa San Giuseppe and the Gallico and Catona valleys, at the northern gates of Reggio Calabria, during the harvest season between April and June. Restoring the groves, Slow Food stresses, is not only a source of income: it helps to preserve the landscape of an area that, thanks to its oranges, earned the name of garden on the Strait.

The visit continues in the city. Reggio Calabria, facing the sea, is home to the National Archaeological Museum with the Riace Bronzes, and Italia.it suggests the Citrus Museum as the first stop for understanding citrus culture, with the machines used to extract bergamot essence and juice and a photographic collection on bergamot growing, harvesting and processing.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Arancia belladonna di San Giuseppe · Italia.it — Reggio Calabria · Italia.it — Via del Bergamotto: Reggio Calabria e Costa Ionica

Protection

When

Where

Calabria