The Arch marked the end point of the traditional ceremony by which bishops accessed the city, during which the prelate was led to the cathedral on a white donkey.

The castle of Gerace was built around the 8th century on pre-existing Roman fortifications, on a spur of rock separated from the city cliff, to which it was connected with a drawbridge. 

Founded in the second half of the thirteenth century, the church was part of a much larger convent complex than the current one, which is contiguous to the left side front of the building. 

The cathedral was founded in the Norman period between the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century, on a pre-existing and more modest Byzantine church located at the level of the crypt.

The palace retains traces of its first construction, which dates back to the second half of the fifteenth century.

The foundation of palazzo Candida dates back to the second half of the sixteenth century, when the family of the namesake Syracusan bishop followed him to Gerace, after his appointment in 1552.

The palace currently houses part of the diocesan museum as well as the bishop's private residence and was probably built in the Late Middle Ages, at the same time as the construction of the Cathedral.

The house, which has been profoundly transformed over the centuries, preserves an important trace of the activity of Giovan Battista Lucifero, who belonged to a family of skilled stonemasons and architects from Gerace

The first Episcopal Seminary of Gerace was founded in 1565 by Bishop Andrea Candida at his expense, according to the decrees of the Counter-Reformation.

The statue, currently located to the right of the altar in the church of the monastery of Sant'Anna, comes from the now destroyed chapel of Santa Maria del Gesù, erected by Countess Caterina Concublet in the church of San Francesco d'Assisi