Eraclea

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Eraclea
coat of arms
Eraclea (Italy)
Eraclea
Country Italy
region Veneto
Metropolitan city Venice  (VE)
Local name Eraclea
Coordinates 45 ° 35 '  N , 12 ° 41'  E Coordinates: 45 ° 35 '0 "  N , 12 ° 41' 0"  E
height 2  m slm
surface 99.05 km²
Residents 12,224 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 123 inhabitants / km²
Post Code 30020
prefix 0421
ISTAT number 027013
Popular name Eracleensi
Patron saint Santa Maria Assunta
Website Eraclea

Eraclea is an Italian municipality with 12,224 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019) in the Veneto region . The resort is located on the Adriatic Sea in the metropolitan city of Venice . Until November 4th 1950 the city was called Grisolera . At the initiative of the then mayor, the name was changed by decree of the Italian President Luigi Einaudi to Eraclea, which was the name of an ancient Roman-Byzantine settlement on the edge of the municipality.

history

The history of Eraclea begins with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the invasion of Italy by “ barbaric ” peoples. The inhabitants from cities like Opitergium (today Oderzo) or Aquileia fled to the island of Melidisa off the coast. In 638 the Byzantine government from Opitergium, together with the bishop and the noble families, moved to the island.

In honor of the Eastern Roman emperor Herakleios , who was able to prevent Lombard rule over the lagoon , they named the new city Heracleia, in which the supposedly first doge of the Republic of Venice, Anafestus Paulucius, ruled from 697 . In the 7th century the city experienced its heyday. Heavily fortified, Heracleia was home to around 90,000 residents. But in the 8th century the main town of the lagoon was moved to Malamocco . At least since the Doges moved their headquarters to the Rialto in 811 , Eraclea lost its importance.

Probably the first doge of Venice, Orso Ipato , was born in the city (legend claims that the first doge also came from there and was proclaimed a doge and buried there). In Orso's time there was always fierce fighting between Eraclea and the neighbors in Jesolo . It is unclear whether the Doge was murdered because he sided with his hometown too one-sidedly. While five magistri militum ruled in succession in the lagoon, among which the main town of the lagoon was moved to Malamocco, around 742 the son of the murdered Doge, Diodato Ipato , obtained the Doge's chair. But the capital was not moved back to Eraclea, but in 810/11 to Rialto.

By the middle of the 18th century, 70% of the municipality's area was under water. At the end of the 18th century, the first attempts were made to drain the swamps, which was institutionalized from 1900 with the Consorzio di Bonifica (cooperative for drainage). Locks, canals and pumps are characteristic of the landscape around Eraclea today.

Church in Grisolera and bell tower destroyed in early 1918
Sandy beach

Tourism, which has been booming since the 1950s, has largely taken place in the "Eraclea Mare" lido, on a three-kilometer-long beach that is embedded in a pine forest . On the municipal boundary between Jesolo and Eraclea lies the Laguna del Mort, a lagoon surrounded on all sides by dunes and pine trees, which forms a refuge for birds.

Personalities

literature

  • Pierluigi Tozzi: La scoperta di una città scomparsa, Eraclea veneta , Edizioni New Press, 1984.
  • Pierluigi Tozzi, Maurizio Harari: Eraclea Veneta. Immagine di una città sepolta , Grafica Step cooperativa, 1984.

Web links

Commons : Eraclea  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Images of the First World War from Grisolera  - collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ Comune di Eraclea, Il paesaggio della bonifica