The decisive siege lasted about forty days, from December 29, 1806, to February 7, 1807; however, throughout 1806 there were hostilities between the French Army and the Bourbon resistance supported by the United Kingdom.

An Anglo-Sicilian fleet commanded by British Admiral William Sidney Smith and consisting of one vessel, two frigates, two brigantines and ten launches deployed in a fighting position in the waters in front of Amantea.

[2] On July 5, General Jean Antoine Verdier (accompanied by a number of pro-French Amantean fugitives, including Lieutenant Colonel Luigi Amato and Captain Gaspare Cozza)[4][5] approached Amantea to recapture it, but eventually gave it up and returned to Cosenza.

In that camp, by order of De Micheli, they received from the mayor of the nobles of Amantea, Giuseppe Cavallo, 500 rations of bread and wine every day at 2 pm.

The clash with the Bourbon masses took place on the slopes of Mount Cocuzzo: the Bourbonians resisted but had to abandon the Potame camp and retreat into the walls of Amantea, which was reached by Verdier on August 28.

[5] On December 3, 1806, the French returned in force from Cosenza to Amantea: 5,000 soldiers led by generals Duhesme, Reynier, Verdier, Ortigoni and Giovanni Battista de' Franceschi.

[5] They then began the siege of the town, settling in two encampments, one to the north on the Camolo rise, the other to the south in the Cannavina locality (they occupied, among other places, the convent of San Bernardino da Siena).

It is also told of a noblewoman, Baroness Laura Procida, wife of Baron Giulio Cesare Fava, who headed a group of defenders composed of her peasants and servants.

[7] A new assault was attempted on the night of December 8, from the side of the ramp of San Pantaleo (near the Mother Church), led by the Amantean captain serving in the French army Gaspare Cozza.

[7] The assault was discovered by a woman, perhaps a prostitute, the commoner Elisabetta Noto (who has become a sort of local heroine today): she in fact seeing the French moving gave the alarm.

De Micheli managed to escape by sea, but all his correspondence with the Bourbon command in Sicily and with the sovereigns fell into French hands.

The President of the Province, Giovanni Battista De Micheli, who had meanwhile returned to Longobardi, said in a report that "it was difficult even for a cat to enter the city.

[10] The subsequent French assault failed, and indeed on the evening of Jan. 15 about 200 Bourbon troops led by Raffaele Falsetti (known as "Centanni" by many locals), a Lieutenant Colonel born in Lago, Calabria, who was not very favorable to the suggestion of a surrender that now seemed imminent.

[11] Meanwhile, General Peyrì sent Colonel Luigi Amato, one of the two Amantean officers who served in the French army, to speak with Ridolfo Mirabelli to demand the surrender of the town.

[11] In the meantime, Longobardi was taken again, many chieftains died in its defense, and the captured President De Micheli himself managed to take shelter in Fiumefreddo;[11] a British frigate, commanded by Admiral William Sidney Smith's nephew, appeared on the coast of Amantea on January 27, bringing reinforcements for the Amanteans.

[12] On January 30 Colonel Amato was again sent to speak with Ridolfo Mirabelli, who showed himself willing to accept the terms of surrender: however, many foreign Bourbonists, and in particular Marcello Lopez who had the rank of ensign, accused the same castellan Mirabelli of treason and collusion with the French "conculcators of altars, talkers of liberty but proponents, because they were foreigners, of the most foul servitude,"[12] and opposed the surrender.

[12] Around 2 p.m. on February 5, 1807, the 1900-pound mine of gunpowder loaded under the walls on the Paraporto side was detonated: the entire bastion collapsed, and to this day that place is known by the toponym of "'a mina.

[13] At dawn on February 6 the white flag was hoisted over the castle, and Mirabelli sent Lieutenant Trigona to General Reynier with an offer of capitulation, which was promptly accepted.

An epigraph commemorating the siege, dictated by Marquis Ernesto De Luca of Lizzano, was placed on the facade of that house in the early twentieth century.

[14] The square was supposed to capitulate by 3 p.m. on February 7, however Mirabelli struggled to convince many of his men to obey him, and one of the two Amantean officers serving in the French army, Gaspare Cozza, also had to intervene.