Economy in Taranto
The economy in Taranto is based on activities linked to the Gulf of Taranto by the strategic position of the city .
origin
Taranto has always owed its existence to its seas. The sweet and pure water of the springs, the moderate climate, the green coasts and the varied abundance of fish made the city a generous and productive place for the inhabitants and a rich and safe haven for the seafarers of the Mediterranean . For these reasons, the Taranto of Magna Graecia was an important trading center, especially with Greece and Asia Minor . The processing industry of byssus for the production of purple flourished particularly in the Mar Piccolo .
Although the Roman conquerors later opened the rival port in Brindisi , Taranto retained a remarkable importance and became a vacation spot. The subsequent alternation of Byzantines , Goths and Lombards confirmed the long and relentless decline of the city, the total destruction of which was achieved by the Saracens in 927 .
In 967 the Byzantine Emperor Nikephorus II decided to rebuild the city. The city was enlarged - today's Borgo Antico was created. The port was moved from Mar Piccolo to Mar Grande , where the current trading port is located. The sea was made available for private individuals and religious organizations. The division of the sea by notarial deeds was also continued by the Normans , Swabians and the Anjou . The Anjou founded the customs office in Piazza Fontana and Porta Napoli became the main entrance to the Principality of Taranto . In the so-called Red Book , records were kept of the royal customs and fishing rights. Fishing was only allowed during certain times of the year and a tax was imposed on fishing and selling. The fishermen demarcated their property with stakes attached to the seabed of the Mar Piccolo. These owners were guarded and violations resulted in fines or even arrests.
During the reign of Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy , the ban on building outside the city walls of the Borgo Antico was lifted. Most of the affluent population were fishermen (56 families) and the Mar Piccolo with its fish and mussel farm is the only evidence of this glorious past today. Until the establishment of the community operation , fishing was subject to duty; thereafter private companies were also abolished. After 1860 the small-scale industries of linen , cotton and heavier fabrics gradually disappeared . More and more activities developed, such as fish processing, commercialization of oils, wines and oysters, which were closely connected with the port.
Today's economy
Fishing and mussel farming
The port of Taranto offers space for numerous fishing boats. The fishing fleet consists mainly of about 80 fishing cutters, which do not exceed 10 t gross tonnage . While the fishing boats are trawling, the smaller fishing boats are fishing with fishing nets. The rich and generous sea is of tooth , bream , grouper , mullet , anchovies , crabs and calamari populated.
Today Taranto is the world's largest producer of farmed mussels : with 1,300 employees, around 30,000 t of mussels are processed per year. The mussel characterized for centuries the city's economy, so that the mussel is the gastronomic symbol of Taranto. It is said that the first mussel gardens in La Spezia , Pola , Olbia and Chioggia were established by mussel farmers who emigrated from this city.
The Taranto mussel farmers work in the boat; every detail of the working method has been improved over time.
10 m long structures made of wood or metal, called pali (piles), are attached to the seabed, to which ropes and nets are then attached, on which the mussels are grown. The mussels farmed here are particularly tasty and valued because they grow in a special environment, a mixture of salt and karst fresh water. These special environmental conditions of the seas of Taranto are ideal not only for the mussels, but also for fish and crustaceans that find food and shelter between the piles. While there are around 18 submarine freshwater springs, called Citri, in the Mar Piccolo, there is only one large one in the Mar Grande, which is called "Anello di San Cataldo" in honor of the patron saint of the city .
The naval arsenal
The Taranto Naval Arsenal , located on Mar Piccolo , was opened on August 21, 1889 in the presence of King Umberto I of Savoy ; it has always had a remarkable impact on the city in economic, corporate, social and urban planning terms. The arsenal was planned for the construction of warships and thus made a decisive contribution to the repair and restoration of military and civilian ship units during and after the two world wars , both on a national and on an allied level.
The naval arsenal employs around 200 soldiers and 2,300 civilians in numerous departments ( iron processing , flag printing , revision and repair of missile systems , telecommunications , radar , repair of electronic modules and maps ).
In the post-war period it became necessary to relocate the naval base to the Mar Grande to allow the fleet greater mobility and to reduce the impact that opening the swing bridge has on the city. The new fleet station was inaugurated on June 25, 2004 . The base under Italian command, which also has some NATO facilities , is located in the Mar Grande near the village of "Chiapparo" and is the most impressive post-war building in Taranto. The state-owned base extends over an area of around 60 hectares :
- From 1989 to 1995 , two million cubic meters of earth were excavated to make space for the construction of new piers and quays for a total of 20 ships. Two tunnels were built, through which the electrical and hydraulic systems can be supplied and which are also used for data transmission, the loading of fuel and the collection of on-board waste.
- The works of 1997 - 2003 related to the logistics , material conservation and storage facilities, a tower to control the traffic in the harbor , a heliport and an internal road network of 4,750 m.
The new fleet station can employ up to 4,000 people.
The quays and docks in Mar Piccolo will continue to be used for military purposes.
The steel industry
At the end of the 1950s it was decided to build the "IV. Italsider Steel Center " and it was opened by the Italian President Giuseppe Saragat in 1965. It is one of the largest industrial groups for steel processing and processing in Europe . The complex is located near the pier St. Cataldo and has a modern structure for unloading raw materials and loading finished products.
This steel giant boosted the stagnant local economy in those years and contributed to the development of numerous industrial activities and related services. Taranto transformed from a quiet provincial town into a large industrial town, one of the first cities in terms of per capita income. For this industrialization, the city paid the high price of concreting the area, the air pollution and the environmental change of the Mar Piccolo. In the course of the 1980s , the world crisis in the steel industry and the invention of new materials led the steel group into an inexorable decline, which was followed in 1995 by privatization with subsequent problems of conversion and reduction in employment.
The Taranto steelworks covers an area of 15,000,000 m². On the site there is a 200 km long railway network, a 50 km long road network, 190 km conveyor belts, 5 blast furnaces and 5 transfer devices. In June 2013 the FAZ named the RIVA steelworks Ilva in Taranto as the largest in Europe. With an immediately effective government decree, the Italian government has relieved the owners of the largest European steel mill from managing their company; a receiver is supposed to push ahead with the restructuring. He now leads the group holding company of the Riva Group (with steelworks also in Germany).
The harbor
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The port of Taranto is located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Taranto . The original small commercial port was for many centuries at the northwest end of the island of Borgo Antico , where the Taranto marina is today. A large industrial port was built to the west of it from 1968, mainly for the neighboring steelworks. The port has developed in a westerly direction beyond the Punta Rondinella and the large pier that begins there, i.e. beyond the Mar Grande . A container terminal with an annual capacity of over 2 million TEUs was opened there in 2001 . Overall, the commercial and industrial port extended to around 340 hectares in 2016, and the length of the shore of all quays was almost 10 kilometers. An expansion of the port is planned.
literature
- Nicola Caputo: Taranto com'era - Edizioni Cressati. Taranto. 2001
- Margherita Balconi: La siderugia italiana (1945–1990). Tra controllo pubblico e incentivi del mercato . Edizioni Il Mulino. Bologna. 1991
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ faz.net June 5, 2013: Europe's largest steelworks under administration