Reggio Calabria
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Coordinates: 38°06′41″N 15°39′43″E / 38.11139°N 15.66194°E
| Reggio Calabria | |||
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| Coordinates: 38°06′41″N 15°39′43″E / 38.11139°N 15.66194°E | |||
| Region | Calabria | ||
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| Province | Province of Reggio Calabria | ||
| Founded | 720 BC[1] | ||
| Government | |||
| - Mayor | Giuseppe Scopelliti | ||
| Area | |||
| - Total | 236 km2 (91.1 sq mi) | ||
| Population (January 2006) | |||
| - Total | 185,585 (18th) | ||
| - Density | 786/km2 (2,025/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| Postal codes | 89100 | ||
| Area code(s) | 0965 | ||
| Patron saints | Saint George | ||
| Website | http://www.reggiocal.it | ||
Reggio di Calabria (Italian pronunciation: /ˈrɛʤ:o ˌdikaˈlabrja/; Calabrian dialect: Rìggiu, Greek-Calabrian: Righi, Greek: Ῥήγιον- Rhegion), commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is a city located in southern Italy and the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria. It is the largest and oldest city in the region and is the second oldest city in Italy overall. It is the third economic center of mainland Southern Italy and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the "city of Bronzes", for the Riace bronzes which are testimonials of its Greek origins; the "city of Bergamot", which is exclusively cultivated in the region; as well as the "city of Fatamorgana", an optical phenomenon visible only from the Reggio seaside in Italy. The city has a population of 185,585 spread over 236 km², while the fast-growing urban area numbers 260,000 inhabitants. Another 370,429 people live in the metropolitan area (the 10th metropolitan city of the Italian nation). When, in 1971, Catanzaro has been confirmed capital of Calabria, Reggio became the seat of the Regional Council
Founded in 720 BCE[1] by the Ancient Greeks as Rhegion, meaning it breaks away, it was a well established settlement of Magna Graecia, later becoming a Roman ally and part of the Roman Republic, then metropolis and capital of the possessions of the Byzantine Empire in southern Italy. Reggio emerged as the capital of the Duchy of Calabria for a period until it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sicily. It was then part of the Kingdom of Naples, later known as Two Sicilies, from 1282 to 1860, until the Italian unification.
Reggio retains a somewhat rural ambiance despite its sizable population. Locals are known as Reggians. Industry in the city revolves primarily around agriculture and the exportation of fruits and tobacco. Also as Reggio is a port city, it has a fishing industry. The beaches of the city have helped make it a popular tourist destination.[2] The municipality of Reggio Calabria contains the frazioni (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Catona, Gallico, Archi, Pentimele, Gallina, Mosorrofa (Greek: Messorofè), Ortì (Greek: Orthioi), Pellaro (Greek: Pèllaros), Saracinello.
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[edit] Geography
Reggio di Calabria is located on the toe of the Italian peninsula and is separated by the Strait of Messina from the island of Sicily. It is situated on the slopes of the Aspromonte, a long, craggy mountain range that runs up through the center of the region. The region is subject to earthquakes and tsunami.
[edit] Climate
Reggio di Calabria possess a typical Mediterranean climate.
 Weather averages for Reggio di Calabria  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 14 (57) |
14 (57) |
16 (61) |
18 (64) |
22 (72) |
26 (79) |
30 (86) |
30 (86) |
27 (81) |
23 (73) |
18 (64) |
15 (59) |
21 (70) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 8 (46) |
8 (46) |
9 (48) |
11 (52) |
15 (59) |
19 (66) |
23 (73) |
23 (73) |
20 (68) |
17 (63) |
12 (54) |
9 (48) |
15 (59) |
| Source: Weatherbase[3] 8 April 2009 | |||||||||||||
[edit] History
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After Cumae, Reggio is one of the oldest Greek colonies in southern Italy. The colony was settled by the inhabitants of Chalcis and Messenia in 720 BCE on the site of an older settlement,Erythrà (Ερυθρά) ("the Red one"), dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE which was established by the Ausones. The last Ausonian ruler was King Italo (from whom the name of Italy is derived)[citation needed]. King Giocasto (Jocasto, Iocastos) is buried on the Punta Calamizzi promontory, called "Pallantiòn", where Greek settlers later arrived. The colony retained the earlier name of "Rhegion" (Ρήγιoν).
Reggio was one of the most important cities in Magna Grecia, reaching great economic and political power during the 5th and 6th centuries BCE under the Anaxilas government which allowed Reggio to rule all over the Strait, including Zancle (modern Messina). Later, the polis of Rhegion reached great artistic and cultural value with its philosophic pitagoric school as well as sculpture and poetry schools, from where came names such as Pythagoras of Rhegium and Ibycus. Later, Rhegion allied with Athens during the Peloponnesian War, but in the 387 BC the city was taken by the Syracusans of Diogenes I.
As an independent city, Rhegium was an important ally and "socia navalis" of Rome. Then during the Imperial age it became one of the most important and flourishing cities of southern Italy because it was the seat of the "Corrector", the Governor of the "Regio II Lucania et Bruttii" (province of Lucany and Brutium). It was devastated by several major earthquakes and associated tsunami during the Roman Empire when it was called "Rhegium Julium." It was a noble Roman city.
During the Byzantine age, Reggio became the capital of the "metropolis of the Byzantine possessions in southern Italy", and later capital of the Duchy of Calabria and linchpin of the Greek church in Italy. During the VIII century the city became a Holy See.
Because of the strategic importance of the city, several populations came to Reggio during the Early Middle Age. For hundreds of years Reggio was contested between the Saracens and Lombards, and then between the Byzantines and Normans. In 1060, Roberto il Guiscardo and Ruggiero d'Altavilla finally captured Reggio, but the Greek cultural and religious elements persisted until the 17th century.
In the 12th century, Reggio became part of the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1282, during the Sicilian Vespers, Reggio rallied in support of Messina and the other oriental Sicily cities because of the shared history, commercial and cultural interests, supporting the Aragonian forces against the Angioins. The city was ranked to Kingdom of Naples and in the 14th century it obtained larger, new administrative powers.
Reggio Calabria is known as the location of the first dated Hebrew book, a Rashi commentary on the Pentateuch, printed in 1475; [4] however, scholars consider Rome as the city where Hebrew printing began.
Because of continuous Turkish incursions, pestilences, and the oppressive Spanish domination taxes, the power of Reggio began to decay in the 16th century until the disastrous 1783 earthquake. The quake damaged not only Reggio but all southern Calabria and Messina.
In 1806 Napoleon Bonaparte took Reggio and assigned the city as Ducate and General Headquarters. On August 21, 1860 during the famous "Battaglia di Piazza Duomo" (Cathedral Square Battle), Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Brun Antonio Rossi - the mayor of Reggio - was the first of the Kingdom to proclaim the Frabcesco II decline and the new Garibaldi Dictatorship. So Reggio was returned to Italy, as Aristoteles said she was born on these coasts, derived from the mythologic King "Italo".
For Reggio di Calabria, the worst earthquakes came in 1783 and on 28 December 1908. The latter quake was the most devastating. Some 80 percent of all buildings in Reggio collapsed and many thousands of people were killed. Damage was even worse in Messina across the Straits. That earthquake remains the worst on record in modern western European history. It took Reggio a generation to fully recover[citation needed].
The city was rebuilt to modern standards but because of its strategic military position, it suffered a devastating air raid by the English 8th Army in 1943. After the Second World War Reggio recovered considerably.
Between the 1970s and the 1980s, Reggio went through twenty years of darkness that encouraged an increase in organized crime and urban decay. But since the early 1990s, the so called "Primavera di Reggio" (Reggio Spring) - a spontaneous movement of people and government institutions - encouraged city recovery and most importantly, a renewed and stronger identity.
[edit] Names of the city through the ages
During its three-thousand year history Reggio has often been renamed. Each name corresponds with the city's major historical phases:
- Erythrà (Ερυθρά, The Red One), pre-Greek settlement populated by Italic people;
- Rhègion (Ῥήγιον, Cape of the King), the Greek city since his settlement during the archaic age to the Magna Grecia age;
- Febèa (Phoebea, solemny dedicated to Apollo), a short period under Dioneges II;
- Rhègium, first Latin name;
- Rhègium Julium (Reggio Giulia), as noble Roman city, during the Imperial age;
- Rivàh, short period under the Saracens domination;
- Rìsa, under the Normans;
- Reggio or Regio, in modern age;
- Règgio di Calàbria, after the Italian Unification.
[edit] Tourism
The Riace bronzes, that can be seen at the important National Museum of Greater Greece, are some of the main turistic destination in Reggio; and the Lungomare Falcomatà, a seaside promenade located in the downtown, is a crowded swimming destination and main symbol of the summer "movida". The tourism in Reggio is distributed between the ionic coast (Costa Jonica), the Tirrenic coast (the Costa Viola, Purple Coast) and the Aspromonte mountain behind the city, which contains the natural reserve of Parco Nazionale dell'Aspromonte (National Aspromonte Park), where at 1,400 meters above the sea there is the Gambarie ski resort with a wonderful panoramic view of the Strait of Messina, from the snowy mount Etna to the Aeolian Islands.
[edit] Other sights
- The Cathedral, the largest religious building in Calabria.
- The Aragonese Castle, built before 540. It is now home to art exhibitions.
- Chiesa degli Ottimati ("Church of the Optimates"), in Byzantine-Norman style.
- The walls of the ancient city, one of the few remaining examples of the original Greek walls. They are divided into four separate sections, the one one the Falcomatà Seaside dating to the 4th century BC and attributed to the city's reconstruction by Dionysius II of Syracuse.
- Villa Zerbi, a villa in 14th-century Venetian style. It is the seat of exhibition of the Venice Biennale in southern Italy.
- Remains of Roman baths.
- The Town Art Gallery (Pinacoteca Comunale) housing works by Antonello da Messina (Abraham Served by the Angels and St. Jerome in Penitence), Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano, Giuseppe Benessai and others.
- The church of Saint Gaetano Catanoso (1879-1963) on via Catanoso in the Santo Spirito neighborhood. Canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 23 October 2005, St. Gaetano is the first saint from Calabria since St.Francis of Paola, who was canonized in 1507. St Gaetano was founder of the Sisters of St. Veronica of the Holy Face. His glass tomb, a magnet for miracle seekers, is in the sanctuary. Museum exhibits as well. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 4 May 1997.
[edit] Notable people
- For more information, see People from Reggio Calabria
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[edit] Twin towns
Athens, Greece, since 2003- Egaleo, Greece, since 2004
- Patras, Greece, since (unknown)
Cesana Torinese, Italy, since 2006
[edit] See also
- University of Reggio Calabria
- List of mayors of Reggio Calabria
- Reggio Calabria Airport
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reggio Calabria-Bova
- Saint Francis of Paola
[edit] References
- ^ a b Foulke, Robert. The Sea Voyage Narrative. Routledge. ISBN 0415938945. http://books.google.com/books?id=cwpdkrGMS38C&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=%22reggio+calabria+founded+by+chalcis+and+messenia+ca+720+bc%22&source=web&ots=odjWOYr1A0&sig=aPQjWmBlQKDqnza9D0iB5k4aIPA&hl=en.
- ^ "Reggio di Calabria". Questia.com. 8 January 2008. http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/reggio_di_calabria.jsp.
- ^ "Reggio di Calabria, Italy". WeatherBase.com. 8 April 2009. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=22461&refer=&units=metric.
- ^ "The Books of the People of the Book - Hebraic Collections" (Hebrew book with date), Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2003-11-06, webpage: LibraryCongress-Hebraic.
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