Belmonte was founded in about 1270, under the reign of King Charles I of Anjou, with the construction of a castle in the territory of Amantea by Drogone di Beaumont, the marshal responsible for new fortification in Calabria, in order to provide resistance against partisans fighting for the claimant Conradin of Hohenstaufen.

During the feudal tenure of this family the petrarchan poet Galeazzo di Tarsia composed his canzoniere, or Book of Songs, in the castle of Belmonte.

Under the Tarsia lordship, Belmonte was besieged several times: during the invasions of Charles VIII and Louis XII of France, between 1495 and 1503, and again in 1528 under the French marshal Lautrec.

Under the French, Belmonte became the centre of the administrative area of Crati, comprising the territory that reaches from Amantea to Guardia Piemontese and including the cities of Aiello, Altilia, Mangone and Rogliano.

Belmonte was in the news on 5 December 1930, when the English aviators Winifred Spooner and Captain Edwards were forced by mechanical breakdown to ditch into the sea whilst en route from London to Cape Town, South Africa, in what had been planned as a 5 days and nights record breaking attempt.