Reggio Calabria

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Reggio Calabria
coat of arms
Reggio Calabria (Italy)
Reggio Calabria
Country Italy
region Calabria
Metropolitan city Reggio Calabria  (RC)
Coordinates 38 ° 7 '  N , 15 ° 40'  E Coordinates: 38 ° 6 '41 "  N , 15 ° 39' 43"  E
height 31  m slm
surface 236 km²
Residents 178,760 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density 757 inhabitants / km²
Factions Catona, Gebbione, Gallico, Archi, Gallina, Mosorrofa, Ortì, Pellaro
Post Code 89100
prefix 0965
ISTAT number 080063
Popular name Reggini
Patron saint San Giorgio
Website Reggio di Calabria
Collage Reggio Calabria.jpg

Reggio Calabria [ ˌɾɛdːʒo kaˈlabɾia ], also Reggio di Calabria or Reggio for short (in antiquity Rhegion or Rhegium ), is a city on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula and capital of the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria .

Reggio was the capital of the Calabria region until 1970 when it had to cede this function to Catanzaro . The regional parliament still has its seat in Reggio Calabria. With 178,760 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019), it is the largest city in Calabria.

geography

The city is on the east side of the Strait of Messina across from Messina ( Sicily ).

The neighboring communities are Bagaladi , Calanna , Campo Calabro , Cardeto , Fiumara , Laganadi , Motta San Giovanni , Montebello Ionico , Roccaforte del Greco , Sant'Alessio in Aspromonte , Santo Stefano in Aspromonte , Villa San Giovanni .

history

The Greek city of Rhegion ( ancient Greek Ῥήγιον , Latin Rhegium, Regium ) on the Strait of Messina ( Fretum Siculum ) is next to Cumae the oldest Greek colony in Italy. It was founded by settlers from Chalkis in the 8th century BC. BC (720) and later settled by Messenians . Due to the trade it soon flourished to such an extent that it provided 70 warships at the time of the elder Dionysius .

433 BC Regium signed a treaty with the Athenians and allied itself with them against Syracuse in 427 , but remained neutral in 415. It was conquered, plundered and destroyed by Dionysius I of Syracuse after several years of fierce fighting and sieges in 387. The residents were led into slavery. The city did not rise to its old prosperity afterwards.

Regium was involved in wars with Lokroi several times , until shortly before the First Punic War in 264 BC. Came under Roman rule as an allied city ( civitas foederata ) . After the alliance war , which gave the inhabitants Roman citizenship , Regium became a municipality and developed into a magnificent Roman city under the name Rhegium Julii . It later became Byzantine , part of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century, and the Kingdom of Naples in the 13th century . In the 16th century it was sacked by Ottoman Turks who, like the Sicilian Arabs in 918 , wanted to spread Islam from Reggio to Italy .

The poet Ibykos, known from Schiller's ballad, came from the region .

The area had already been hit by several earthquakes in ancient times. On December 28, 1908, Reggio was devastated by the 1908 Messina earthquake , which was connected with a tsunami . At least 15,000 of the then 45,000 residents lost their lives.

Reggio Calabria is known as the location of the first dated Hebrew book, a Rashi commentary taken from the Pentateuch in 1475 .

In October 2012 the city council was dissolved by the Italian Ministry of the Interior and the administration was placed under supervision. The reason for the measure was the proximity of some politicians to the mafia organization 'Ndrangheta . The police chief of Crotone will take over the supervision of the administration , who will then have to hand it back to a newly elected city council in spring 2013.

Attractions

Cathedral (basilica) of Reggio Calabria
  • The Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia (National Museum) shows early Italian, ancient, medieval and modern sculptures as well as the two Greek bronze statues of Riace (Heroes of Riace) from the period from 460 to 430 BC. BC, which were found in 1972 on the bottom of the Ionian Sea not far from the place Riace Marina in Calabria.
  • Reggio Calabria Cathedral , rebuilt in neo-Romanesque-Byzantine style after the 1908 earthquake
  • Madre della Consolazione (Reggio Calabria) , Sanctuary (1965)
  • Castello Aragonese (fort) from the 15th century not far northeast of the cathedral
  • Villa Comunale (city garden) southwest of the cathedral
  • Remains of a Greek city wall from the 4th century BC. And from Roman thermal baths with floor mosaics on the southern section of the Lungomare Giacomo Matteotti (embankment)

traffic

Sports

Reggio is home to the Urbs Reggina 1914 football club , which will play in Serie B in the 2020/2021 season .

Town twinning

There is a city partnership with Gualeguaychú in Argentina.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

See also

Web links

Commons : Reggio Calabria  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Reggio Calabria  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
  2. ↑ Italy places provincial capital under compulsory supervision. In: Zeit Online. Zeit Online GmbH, October 10, 2012, accessed on October 10, 2012 .